CTC to pump over 60mln tons of Kazakh oil
By Kamila Aliyeva
Over 60 million tons of oil, produced in Kazakhstan, is planned to be pumped through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) in 2018.
This was announced by CPC General Director Nikolai Gorban during a press conference, Kazinform reported.
“In 2018, the consortium plans to pump 67 million tons through its pipeline system. It is estimated that about 60 million of them will be produced in Kazakhstan, and about 7 million we expect to receive from Russian producers. An almost two-fold increase in oil consumption from Kashagan to 13 million tons is planned. Last year, we received 7.4 million tons,” he said.
According to the announced data, out of 60 million tons of oil produced in Kazakhstan, about 13 million tons will fall for Kashagan, about 12 million tons – for Karachaganak, and about 28 million tons for Tengiz while the rest (about 7 million tons) - for other producers.
The head of the CPC also said that the consortium plans to make payments on debt to shareholders in the amount of 1.3 billion dollars this year.
As of the first quarter of March 29, payments were made on a debt of $310 million in favor of shareholders.
“Of them, $268 million are for Russia, and there are Kazakh shareholders as well, and 42 million dollars is for a Kazakh enterprise. In total in 2018, we plan to repay $1.3 billion according to the principle ‘equally and simultaneously’ for both enterprises,” Gorban added.
He further said that no change in priorities and quotas is expected in connection with the increase in production at Kashagan.
“The increase in volume does not imply a change and redistribution. The shareholder contract is registered in such a way that it is not tied to a specific physical volume. Therefore, in this case, there will be no changes,” CPC head noted.
To date, there is no plan to change the tariff, and there are no such discussions among shareholders, he said, answering journalists' questions.
He went on to say that the CPC expansion project has actually been completed.
“The mechanical capacity of the pipeline system is 67 million tons, which is the project figure that we reached last December. The application of the additive is practically irrelevant, and the volumes for today are minimal, because we carried out the whole range of physical works that allowed us to reach these indicators. We apply the additive only because of uneven delivery of consignors of their volumes. That is, when we need to increase the volume of one-time pumping,” CPC head explained.
Meanwhile, it was reported that in March 2018, the CPC Marine Terminal hit a new record of monthly loading.
It loaded 5,506,294 tons or 43,609,021 barrels, which is almost 6 percent higher than the previous record dated December 2017 when the monthly loading achieved 5,196,229 tons, the Consortium's press service said.
Volumes loaded in March this year appeared to be 11.7 percent
higher compared to the same period of last year. As a reminder,
4,929,486 tons were loaded into tankers in March 2017.
The remarkable thing is that the Marine Terminal handled 140
tankers from the beginning of 2018 through April 2 (50 of which
were handled in March); these tankers received over 15 million tons
of crude.
CPC Base Business has seen such an impressive increase due to the
Tengiz-Novorossiysk Pipeline Expansion Project completed by the
Consortium. In 2017 alone six new PSs were put into operation:
A-PS-4A and A-PS-5A in Astrakhan Oblast, PS-8 in Krasnodar Krai,
PS-5 in Stavropol Krai, A-PS-3A in Kazakhstan and PS-2 in Kalmykia,
where comprehensive testing was successfully completed and the PS
was put into pilot operation.
Caspian Pipeline Consortium was established to build a pipeline and export Kazakh oil through Russian territory.
CPC exported 55,107 million tons of oil in January- December 2017, showing a 24.4 percent increase compared to 2016.
CPC owns 1,511 km long pipeline system that connects the oil fields in Western Kazakhstan with the Marine Terminal near Russian Novorossiysk. In 2017 the Caspian Pipeline Consortium will complete the Expansion Project and which will increase its capacity to 67 million tons of oil per annum. Kazakh producer will account for 56 million tons of that volume and Russian producers - for 11 million tons.
CPC Shareholders: Russia (represented by Transneft – 24 percent and CPC Company – 7 percent) – 31 percent; Kazakhstan (represented by KazMunaiGaz – 19 percent and Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC – 1.75 percent) – 20.75 percent; Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company – 15 percent, LUKARCO B.V. – 12.5 percent, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company – 7.5 percent, Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited – 7.5 percent, BG Overseas Holding Limited – 2 percent, Eni International N.A. N.V. – 2 percent и Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC – 1.75 percent.
The volume of CPC shipment of oil for export in 2016 was 44,298 million tons, which is 3.6 percent more than in 2015.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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