OREANDA-NEWS. On September 24 the CPC Pipeline started a scheduled 72-hour shutdown to replace some leaking valves and tie in some additional equipment as part of its Expansion project.

The valve replacement was performed by Operations on various sites all along the pipeline in Russia and Kazakhstan. Large-diameter ball valves were replaced at the Astrakhan, Kropotkin and Atyrau Pump Stations.

The first new pump station tie-ins were made under the Expansion project in Russia. These included a PS-7 tie-in in the Krasnodar Krai and PS-4 in the Stavropol Region. Preparations for the PS-3 tie-in were made in Kalmykia. The way the tie-ins are made allows the pump stations to be commissioned later on without shutting down the pipeline.

A gas fuel pipeline tie-in and a compressed-air tie-in were made at the existing Komsomolsk pump station. Control & communication systems were connected at the Kropotkin pump station to support the operation of new mainline pumps and other additional equipment installed as part of a pump station upgrade. That was the final step before the new facilities of the Kropotkin pump station could be comprehensively tested and commissioned.

All work activities were completed according to plan in full and on time thanks to being preceded by serious preparations, potential risk analysis and mobilization of additional resources and equipment. The shutdown involved over 200 people.

The CPC pipeline system is one of the largest investment projects in the energy sector with foreign capital in the CIS. The length of the pipeline connecting oil fields in Western Kazakhstan with the Marine Terminal in Novorossiysk is 1,511 km. The CPC Marine Terminal is equipped with single point moorings allowing to load tankers safely far offshore, including in bad weather conditions.

The Expansion Project provides for an upgrade of 5 existing and the construction of 10 additional pump stations (2 in the Republic of Kazakhstan and 8 in the Russian Federation), six crude oil storage tanks near Novorossiysk in addition to the existing four (100,000 m3 each) and an SPM at the CPC Marine Terminal, and also the replacement of a 88 km pipeline section in Kazakhstan with a larger diameter pipe. The total investment into the Project will amount to USD 5.4 billion