OREANDA-NEWS. January 15, 2009. In December 2008 the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) lifted 2,976 thousand tons of crude oil through its Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk, the maximum monthly lifting rate of the entire period of operation, reported the press-centre of CPC.

In 2008 CPC pumped 32.2 MMT of crude oil through its pipeline, out of which 31.5 MMT were lifted through the Marine Terminal and 0.7 MMT were delivered to the pipeline system of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

In total, from the commencement of the pipeline operation in October 2001 over 175 MMT of crude oil have been lifted through CPC Marine Terminal without any accidents and with compliance with all safety and environmental protection requirements.

Starting from 2005, the Company has reached the first stage design capacity – over 30 MMT of crude oil are being pumped through CPC pipeline on an annual basis. CPC pipeline system was initially designed and constructed with allowance for a subsequent increase of its capacity up to 67 MMT, and during the last few years the Consortium’s Shareholders were negotiating CPC Expansion terms.

On December 17, 2008 in Moscow CPC Shareholders and the Management of the RF Ministry of Energy and the RoK Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources signed the CPC Expansion Project Implementation Principles Memorandum of Understanding.

In pursuance of that decision CPC continues the efforts to update the Project TEO developed in 1998, and has proceeded to a detailed design of the expanded system facilities. In accordance with the current nature protection legislation of the Russian Federation preparation of public discussion of an environmental impact in the course of CPC Marine Terminal development project implementation is under way for the purpose of accounting for public opinion.

The sign-off of the CPC Expansion Project Implementation Principles Memorandum of Understanding has launched an active phase of work to prepare front-end engineering documentation and obtain permits and approvals to construct all necessary facilities. The Consortium assumes that the Expansion implementation will enable the Company reaching a new level of economic efficiency, will yield added value not just to the Project Shareholders, but also to the Regions crossed by the pipeline route which will receive new jobs, new level of business and orders for work and materials.