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Caspian Pipeline Consortium set a personal record in oil transfer

Total volume of requests for crude oil transfer by the Tengiz – Novorossiysk pipeline for 2017 amounted to 65,7 mln. tons

Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) – one of the largest investment projects in the energy sector within the territory of CIS – in 2016 it set a record in crude oil transfer throughout the entire history of its existence. CPC General Director, Nikolai Gorban, reported at the conference dedicated to the results of the year that in 2016 the CPC system received 44,3 mln. tons of hydrocarbon crude.

Mr. Gorban also said that last year the Company finished the retrofitting and expansion of the CPC Marine Terminal Tank Farm capacity up to 1 mln. tons within the scope of Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline system expansion project. Besides, the CPC Marine Terminal Main Control Center allowing to monitor all stages of oil transfer from Tengiz to Novorossiysk was recommissioned after the retrofitting.

According to Mr. Gorban, shippers have already requested in 2017 for 65,7 mln. tons of crude oil to be transferred via Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline. 54,7 mln. tons belong to Kazakhstan and 11 mln. tons to Russia.

"According to the received requests, in 2017 the Kashagan field will deliver to CPC pipeline 10,4 mln. tons of crude oil. Filanovskoye and Korchagin fields are expected to produce 5,4 mln. tons of oil – added the Consortium General Director.

He also pointed out that the CPC investment program for 2017 shall amount to about 70 million USD (4,2 billion rubles). Money will be allocated for reinforcement of fire-fighting and antiterrorist protection of facilities, and also for modification and scheduled replacement of equipment.

Mr. Gorban reported that in 2017 it is planned to complete the expansion of capacity of Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline system. 150 mln. USD will be allocated for this purpose (9,04 billion rubles). In particular, in the first half of 2017 two pump stations will be launched, PS-4A and PS-5A, in Astrakhan oblast. Then the pump stations will be commissioned in Krasnodsar krai, Stavropol krai and Kalmykia. Besides, it is planned to commission one pump station in Kazakhstan. According to Consortium assessment, after launching of the above facilities, the throughput capacity of the pipeline system shall be 67 mln. tons of oil a year.

It should be noted that the total length of CPC pipeline shall be 1511 km. The Consortium shareholders include Russia (31%), Kazakhstan (20,75%), and also 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. (2%) and Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC (1,75%).

It should be reminded that the Kazakhstan oil field, Kashagan, was discovered in 2000. The geologic reserves are officially assessed for 4,8 billion tons of oil. Total oil reserves are 38 billion of barrels, of them the extractable are about 10 billion of barrels, natural gas reserves - over 1 trillion of cubic meters. The production of crude oil in Kashagan started in September of 2013. But it was stopped within two weeks because of the gas leak. On September 28, 2016, after complete replacement of gas pipeline and oil pipeline the production in the field was resumed. On December 7, 2016 the official opening of Kashagan was held, which was visited by the president of the republic, Nursultan Nazarbaev. As it was reported at that time in the Ministry of the country, the production in Kashagan for November 1, 2016, reached the commercial level - over 75 thousand barrels a day. Also, it was clarified in the department that works are being performed on the field for increasing the volume of production and its stabilization on the level of 180 thousand barrels a day.

It should also be noted that on December 12, 2016 the premier minister of Kazakhstan, Bakytzhan Sagintaev, stated that the country has joined the agreement of Organization of countries-exporters of oil (OPEK) for decreasing the volumes of oil production. The minister of energy, Kanat Bozumbaev, told that Kazakhstan confirmed the decrease of production for 20 thousand barrels a day and obliged oneself to keep the level of oil production at the level of 1,68 mln. barrels a day for the following half a year.

Minister has also pointed out that the decrease for 20 thousand barrels a day shall be reached due to the decrease of production at oil fields located in Aktyubinks, Kzyl-Orda and Mangistau oblasts. However, as he clarified, the given reduction shall not cover such major projects like Kashagan, Tengiz and Karachaganak.

On January 10, 2017, Kanat Bozumbaev reported that the country has already fulfilled ones obligations.

It should also be added that Kazakhstan, as a sharehodler of Caspian Pipeline Consortium, has been introduced on behalf of the national company “Kazmunaigaz”. The national company "Razvedka Dobycha KazMunaigaz" (RD KMG), being the daughter company of “Kazmunaigaz”, on January 26 informed about the results of independent assessment of reserves of liquid hydrocarbons at its oil fields. According to the report of the American company DeGolyer and MacNaughton, which assessed the reserves of oil in Kazakhstan, the liquid hydrocarbons by category “proved plus probable” (2P) are 145 mln. tons (1,06 billion barrels). This is for 7 mln. tons (54 mln. barrels) less than the volume assessed as of December 31, 2015. The proved reserves (1Р), as of December 2016, according to American specialists, were 93 mln. tons (684 mln. barrels), whereas in December 2015 they were estimated at 99 ,ln. tons (723 mln. barrels). For the third category, the “proved plus probable” (3P), the reserves are estimated at 196 mln. tons (1,42 billion barrels) against 204 mln. tons (1,49 billion barrels) according to estimation as of December 2015.

IA REGNUM, February 01, 2017