OREANDA-NEWS. March 04, 2010. Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) finished loading the 2000th crude oil tanker at its Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk since commissioning, reported the press-centre of CPC.

The first tanker was loaded at the CPC Marine Terminal on 13 October 2001. In total CPC has lifted 215+ mln tons (over 1.65 bn bbl of crude oil) for export without any accidents since the start of operations with 34.5 mln tons lifted last year.

Earlier this year CPC started a phased execution of a Shareholder-approved Expansion up to 67 MTA. The Expansion Project includes 10 additional new pump stations to be built (2 in Kazakhstan, 8 in Russia), 88 km of pipe to be replaced in Kazakhstan, six oil storage tanks to be erected near Novorossiysk and also a third single-point mooring to be installed at the CPC Marine Terminal. The Expansion Project is targeted to be completed in 2014.

The CPC pipeline system is the largest oil movement route from the Caspian to international markets. This mainline pipeline is 1,500 km long, connecting Western Kazakhstan fields with the Black Sea coast. Russian crude is injected into the pipeline system at the Kropotkin PS in the Krasnodar Krai. CPC Marine Terminal is equipped with single-point moorings that allow tankers to be loaded safety at a significant distance offshore, including poor weather conditions.