OREANDA-NEWS. May 2, 2007. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin inked past week a decree to transfer under Transneft management the stake of 24 percent in Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which is currently controlled by the Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimushchestvo).

According to the draft agreement, Transneft will get the annual remuneration of one ruble ($0.04) for managing CPC and will have to agree with Rosimushchestvo all core decisions related to it.

Putin’s decree has transferred the federal-run 24 percent in CPC into the trust management of Transneft “to improve management efficiency” for the asset. Putin waited for nearly a year and a half to sign that decree .

CPC is the operator of Kazakh Tengiz-Russia’s Novorossiysk pipeline of 1,500 kilometers. Russia owns 24 percent in CPC, Kazakhstan holds 19 percent, Oman has 7 percent. The biggest private investors are Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, BG, Eni, LUKOIL and Rosneft. CPC delivered 31.1 million tons of crude in 2006.

Vladimir Putin signed another decree on Transneft in March. That decree that Putin inked also after a year’s delay sets forth Transneft’s consolidation with Transnefteproduct. Of interest is that, in Transneft, they have hailed neither consolidation with Transnefteproduct nor transfer of CPC’s stake in it. The sources say the opponents of Transneft President Semen Vainshtok in Putin’s administration had lobbied the consolidating decree but opposed the decree on CPC’s transfer.