OREANDA-NEWS. On October 22, crude oil transportation by Tengiz-Novorossiysk Pipeline was fully shut down for 72 hours to carry out scheduled work on repair and replacement of block valves, current pipeline maintenance and connection of new facilities under the project of increasing the pipeline capacity.

This work was carried out throughout the pipeline length in Russia and Kazakhstan. Large-bore ball valves were replaced at the existing Komsomolskaya Pump Station in the Republic of Kalmykia and Kropotkin Pump Station in Krasnodar Krai.

A new mainline pump house was tied in to the pipeline at Tengiz PS, Kazakhstan. The tie-in process flow diagram will enable commencement of the start-up work and comprehensive testing of mainline pumps without any pipeline shutdowns. Work was completed at Atyrau PS to switch the programmed logic controller of emergency protection.

Under the pipeline expansion project, certain work was done at the tie-in point of the new A-PS-4A in Astrakhan Oblast, preparatory work was done to tie-in A-PS-4 in Kazakhstan and A-PS-5A in Astrakhan Oblast. These pump stations are tied in per such a flow diagram which will enable their putting into operation without shutting down the whole pipeline system.

Connected at the Marine Terminal Tank Farm near Novorossiysk were the ID 1,400 mm headers of the three 100,000 cu. m storage tanks which are constructed under the Expansion Project Phase 2.

All scheduled work items were completed in an accurate and timely manner due to serious preparatory work, preliminary analysis of potential risks, and mobilization of additional manpower and equipment resources. More than 250 CPC and contractor workers and specialists were involved in this work.

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%.​