ATYRAU, Kazakhstan, March 26, 2001 -- Chevron Corp. today announced the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) reached an important milestone as it began "line fill" today during a ceremony at the CPC pump station at Atyrau. The prime minister of Kazakhstan, Kasymzhomart Tokaev, opened the valve that sent the first Kazakh oil on its 900-mile (1,500 kilometer) journey to CPC's marine terminal north of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea.
Chevron has described the export pipeline as important to oil fields in the region, including one of the world's largest, Tengiz Field, with estimated recoverable reserves of 6 billion to 9 billion barrels. CPC will carry Tengiz crude and also transport oil from other Kazakh and Russian fields.
"This is another remarkable achievement in this bellwether project. CPC has proven yet again just what can be accomplished here," said Chevron Vice Chairman Richard Matzke. "With the wholehearted support and goodwill of the governments of Kazakhstan and Russia, CPC will soon complete a world class project on schedule and on budget, while fully meeting the most demanding technical and environmental requirements."
Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Vladimir Stanev attended the ceremony, as did foreign diplomats.
The 10 international companies financing the $2.6 billion cost of the initial phase of the CPC pipeline include companies from Kazakhstan, Russia, the United States and Europe. By year-end, the initial phase of the pipeline will have an export capacity of 28 million tons of oil per year (approximately 600,000 barrels per day). With upgrades, the ultimate capacity of the pipeline is 67 million tons of oil per year (1.5 million barrels of oil per day). |
