The Astana Times – The Kazakh Ministry of Energy has been developing alternative routes for shipping oil after the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) marine terminal accident, reported Minister of Energy Bolat Akchulakov on March 24.
“The operations will be suspended for some time. Oil will be redirected through the port of Aktau and through Samara, and oil will also be transferred towards China. The operations of larger routes will take time due to technical solutions,” Akchulakov told Atameken Business TV Channel.
Some 53-54 million tons of oil were shipped through the CPC last year.
Overall, the total oil export will decline, but this reduction is not critical.
“There will be reductions in oil production, but these approaches are technologically feasible. There are some planned shutdowns for maintenance at the fields. For example, Tengiz, Kashagan and Karachaganak and other fields suspend operations for repairs for up to 40-50 days,” he said.
Earlier, it was reported that the Ministry of Energy is also engaged in consultations with the CPC on the duration of the repair works at the marine terminal.
It is reported that the CPC marine terminal near Novorossiysk has suspended oil lifting after the storm. “On March 21, in the course of an unscheduled inspection, damage in the form of displacement of the power frame of one of the Single point mooring (SPM)-3 floating hoses was revealed. With this in view, a decision was made to temporarily take the said SPM out of service for flushing and repair,” reads the consortium’s release.
The inspection detected damages to sections 9 and 13 of the SPM-2 internal hose. Repairs may take a considerable time due to adverse weather and the wait for tanker nomination for flushing.
The consortium is expected to announce a potential triple reduction in the transported oil quantities nominated by the shippers.
No emergency oil spill in the Black Sea water area has been reported.
The CPC Pipeline System is the largest international oil transportation project in the region. Its pipeline system mainly collects crude oil from large oil fields in the West Kazakhstan region and crude oil from Russian producers.
