The commissioning of these PSs provided the throughput gain of 10 MMTA of crude oil.
Caspian Pipeline Consortium has commissioned two new pump stations (APS-4A and APS-5A) in Astrakhan Oblast.
CPC noted that the commissioning of these PSs provided the throughput gain of up to 10 MMTA in the Caspian segment (from Atyrau PS in Kazakhstan to Komsomolsk PS in Kalmykia).
The CPC pipeline runs from oil fields in western Kazakhstan to Marine Terminal in Novorossiysk. Its length is 1,511 km.
The commissioning ceremony, along with the CPC Management Team and staff, was attended by Astrakhan Region Governor Alexander Zhilkin.
During the PS-5 tour, the Astrakhan Governor became familiar with the PS configuration, which construction started in 2012 in the steppe. Today, 28 ha accommodate high-tech facilities: surge relief station, control room, fire station, helicopter pad etc. The PS “heart” is four pumps, each capable of pumping 3.5 thousand cu m of crude oil per hour. Crude oil velocity is 5-7 km/h. All crude oil comes from Kazakhstan. It is moved via the pipeline to Novorossiysk, where it is loaded into vessels by subsea hoses. The PS has a close-circuit scheme, without “open” crude oil, thus inflicting no damage upon environment.
In 2011, the CPC Expansion Project commenced to boost the pipeline system throughput up to 67 MMTA. The project envisaged the upgrade of 5 PSs, construction of 10 new PSs, increase of MT tank capacity up to 1MM tons and replacement of a 88-km pipeline segment in Kazakhstan with a larger diameter pipe.
All work is to be fully completed in 2017.