Normalization of weather conditions enables CPC to resume oil transshipment at sea terminal after 4 days of inactivity

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) has resumed transshipment of oil at the sea terminal outside Novorossiysk, the CPC said on Thursday, February 23.

"Normalization of weather conditions enabled the Caspian Pipeline Consortium to resume transshipment of oil at the company's sea terminal on February 22, 2023. The mooring of the Pacific Diamond tanker at SPM-3 took place," the CPC said.

Shipment of oil is being conducted in strict compliance with industrial and environmental safety requirements, it said. "The SPM construction enables transshipment in bad weather when traditional costal oil loading systems are forced to suspend operations. At the same time, weather restrictions exceeding similar ones for shore-based terminals apply to SPM. For instance, mooring at SPM and lifting of hoses onto a tanker can be performed at sea state up to 2.5 meters and the speed of wind of no more than 23 meters per second or 12 meters per second for the southern wind," it said.

As reported, operations at the sea terminal were suspended on February 19 due to unfavorable weather conditions. As of February 21, the terminal's tank farm was almost completely full contained about 1 million tonnes of oil, and the CPC considered a possible forced stop of transporting oil via the Tenzig-Novorossiysk pipeline due to overstocking. On February 22, the CPC halted the intake of oil from the Tengiz field.

The CPC pipeline links oil fields of the west of Kazakhstan and Russian oil fields on the Caspian shelf to the sea terminal in Novorossiysk. It is 1,511 kilometers long. The pipeline is the main export route for Kazakh oil, accounting for more than 80% of the country's oil exports. It transported 58.7 million tonnes of oil in 2022, 3.3% less than in 2021.

CPC shareholders are the Russian Federation represented by Transneft (trust management) - 24%, CPC Company - 7%, KazmunayGas - 19%, Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC - 1.75%, Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company - 15%, LUKARCO B.V. - 12.5%, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company- 7.5%, Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited- 7.5%, BG Overseas Holding Limited- 2%, Eni International N.A. N.V. S.ar.l. - 2% and Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC - 1.75%.