OREANDA-NEWS. Nikolay Brunich, General Director of Caspian Pipeline Consortium, visited the Eastern Region of Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline route on July 23-25. In the course of this trip, he visited Tengiz and Atyrau Pump Stations which are in the process of being upgraded within the framework of expanding the pipeline system capacity. Upon a visual inspection of the facilities, a meeting was held with attendance of the PS specialists and representatives of the contractors involved in the construction work. The consortium’s head draw attention to the necessity of a strict observance of the established work schedules and, in some cases, of revising such schedules to reduce the backlog on the first-turn facilities.

In Astana, Nikolay Brunich had meetings with Mr. Uzakbai Karabalin, Minister of Oil and Gas of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and with the management of AO NK KazMunaiGaz - Mr. Sauat Mynbaev, Board Chairman, and Mr. Nurtas Shmanov, Deputy Board Chairman, Transportation Infrastructure. The CPC head reported on the findings of his inspection visit, progress in expansion of the pipeline system capacity in Kazakhstan and measures taken to achieve the objectives set forth by shareholders for the consortium.

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 US\\$ 5.4 billion.