Caspian oil pipeline to expand capacity by a quarter by end-2023

The Caspian pipeline, which transports oil from Kazakhstan to Russia, will boost capacity by around a quarter to 83 million tonnes a year the end of 2023, a Caspian Pipeline Consortium official told an in-house magazine published on Thursday.

Project consultant Christopher Scott Bowen said capacity was set to expand from around 67 million tonnes a year now thanks to a de-bottlenecking programme, which would allow the pipeline to pump 72.5 million tonnes of oil a year from Kazakhstan alone.

Capacity will be boosted due to an expected rise in oil production in Kazakhstan. It connects the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan, and a number of other fields, to the sea terminal near Novorossiisk in Russia.

Crude oil exports via the CPC pipeline reached 61.1 million tonnes in 2018, up 5.98 million tonnes on a year earlier. CPC expects to export 67.7 million tonnes (1.35 million barrels per day) of CPC Blend oil in 2019.

Bowen said CPC, the largest international oil transportation project, planned to add pumping stations and turbines as a part of the de-bottlenecking programme.

CPC’s top shareholders are Russia with 24 percent, Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGaz energy company with 19 percent and Chevron with 15 percent.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Susan Fenton and David Evans)