The CPC contractors in Novorossiysk successfully carried out an operation to install anchor caissons for two new Single Point Moorings in the period from September 28 to October 17, 2025. Twelve holding units were delivered to the port of Novorossiysk by three specialized vessels in August-September 2025 and are currently installed in their final position on the seabed in the Marine Terminal water area.
In 2026, the Consortium will replace two Single Point Moorings, commissioned in 2001 - SPM CPC-1 and SPM CPC-2. The above SPMs will be installed with the use of new anchors caissons.
Each anchor caisson is a casing made of steel with dimensions of 30x10x7 m, capable of keeping afloat due to the air contained inside. In the process of preparing for lowering the anchor to the seabed in
the port of Novorossiysk each caisson was filled with concrete, which formed a 35 cm thick concrete slab with a volume of about 100 m3 on the anchor caisson surface. Concreting doubled the weight of each anchor caisson from 200 to 400 tons. Then two tugboats delivered each structure to the installation site.
The operation on lowering the anchors to the seafloor was carried out using a barge-mounted crane with a lifting capacity of 1,350 tons and a support vessel. The support vessel, using a complex set of navigation and control equipment, maintained the required positioning in automatic mode with high accuracy during launching operations, without the use of anchors and using only the necessary propulsion devices.
Anchor chains, divers and a special remotely operated underwater
vehicle (ROV) were also lowered from the support vessel. ROV was used in monitoring the progress of the suction anchors immersion at the depths deeper than 20 meters from the water surface, provided that the anchors were installed at the depths up to 60 meters.
All activities related to concreting, transporting and immersion of the suction anchors required maximum coordination and professionalism from the stakeholders.
Suction anchor caissons are the most common type of anchors used for deep-sea mooring facilities today. For the first time the suction anchors were used in the Danish sector of the North Sea in 1981 at the Gorm field for the installation of SPM.
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CPC Pipeline System is one of the largest investment projects in the energy sector with participation of foreign capital on the CIS territory. Length of the Tengiz–Novorossiysk Pipeline is 1,511 km. Over two thirds of all Kazakhstan export crude, as well as crude from Russian oil fields, including those in the Caspian Region, are transported by this route. CPC Marine Terminal is equipped with three Single Point Moorings (SPM) that allow to load tankers safely at a significant distance offshore, also amid poor weather conditions.
CPC Shareholders: Federal Agency for State Property Management represented by PJSC Transneft (trust management) – 24 %, IC CPC Company (LLC) – 7%, JSC NC 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.a.r.l. – 2% and Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC – 1.75%.