OREANDA-NEWS. Nikolay Brunich, Caspian Pipeline Consortium General Director, made his first on-the-spot visit to the regions crossed by the crude pipeline route.

In the course of his trip he visited the existing facilities of the Consortium’s crude pipeline system: Tank Farm and Shore Facilities at the Marine Terminal, Kropotkin Pump Station (PS). He inspected the construction sites where the PS’s are being built as part of the Expansion Project, including PS-7 in the Cossack village of Staromyshastovskaya, Krasnodar Krai, and PS-4 in the town of Ipatovo, Stavropol Krai. Operation meetings were conducted with the facilities management, Management Company Chernomortransneft with participation of construction contractors and the Consortium’s staff, and the Kropotkin Emergency Response Station was visited.

The result of the CPC General Director’s meeting with Vladimir Sinyagovsky, Administration Head of the city of Novorossiysk, was the confirmation of previous agreements between the Consortium and the city as part of the mutual cooperation. Nikolay Brunich noted: “The Consortium’s key tasks in its business activity in the regions include environmental safety and social support to the communities”. Hand-over of the state-of-the-art medical equipment to Novorossiysk municipal hospital No. 1 as a gift from Caspian Pipeline Consortium became an illustrative example of such a support. The hospital staff received gynecological and endoscopic laparoscopic stands, new ultrasonic system and modern functional gurneys.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the future treatment and diagnostic building of Ipatovo central district hospital in Stavropol Krai to be funded by CPC became the final stage of the on-the-spot visit. The ceremony was attended by the Consortium’ Management, representatives of the regional and local authorities, central district hospital and construction contractor management. CPC allocated about RUR 65 million to construction of the treatment and diagnostic center. The total area of the facility will exceed 2 thousand square meters. The building will accommodate the sections of the functional diagnostic clinical laboratory, gastrofibroscopy and Colonofiberscopy, X-ray and ultrasound investigation diagnostics department, and also clinic for women. The project is to be implemented next year.

CPC pipeline system is one of the largest investment projects in the energy industry with participation of foreign capital on the CIS territory. The length of the pipeline connecting the oil fields in Western Kazakhstan with the Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk is 1,511 km. CPC Marine Terminal is equipped with single point moorings which allow for safe tanker lifting at a considerable distance from the shore, also when the weather conditions are unfavorable.

The Expansion Project includes rehabilitation of 5 existing and construction of 10 additional pump stations (2 in the Republic of Kazakhstan and 8 in the Russian Federation), six new storage tanks (100,000 cu.m each) in addition to the existing four near Novorossiysk and a third SPM at the CPC Marine Terminal, and also the replacement of an 88 km pipeline section in Kazakhstan with a larger diameter pipe. The total amount of the Project investments will be USD 5.4 billion.

CPC Shareholders: Russian Federation (represented by Transneft – 24% and CPC Company – 7 %) – 31%; Republic of Kazakhstan (represented by KazMunayGaz – 19% and Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC – 1.75%) – 20.75%; 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. - 2% и Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC – 1.75%