OREANDA-NEWS. On 31 December the CPC Marine Terminal has loaded the 40-millionth ton of oil since the beginning of this year. The tanker, SCF SURGUT, dwt 158,000 tons, took the jubilee ton of oil on board. It is bound for the port of Rotterdam. For the tanker the loading was a jubilee too - it was its 50th call at the Marine Terminal.This record result has become possible to achieve owing to additional system facilities commissioned under the Expansion project. Earlier in February a single point mooring (SPM-3) was added to two existing ones at the Marine Terminal. Later in April some new capacities were commissioned at the upgraded oil pump stations of Astrakhan, Komsomolsk and Kropotkin.

More new facilities are planned to be commissioned next year to help bring the throughput capacity of the system up to 45-50 million tons per annum. A total of over 379 million tons of export oil have been loaded at the CPC Marine terminal since the start of the pipeline's operation.

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 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%.