Transneft halts Russian oil flows via CPC pipeline

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft has halted Russian oil flows via the Caspian Pipeline (CPC), which ships mainly Kazakh crude, citing maintenance work at a rail loading terminal, industry sources said on Friday.

CPC is able to replace any lost Russian oil with Kazakh barrels to ensure there is no loss to the market, the sources said.


Led by U.S. oil major Chevron, CPC ships crude from Kazakhstan to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, but also uses flows of Russian crude which travel a short distance between the Transneft network and CPC by rail.

CPC can export up to 750,000 barrels per day and Russian flows can amount to 120,000 bpd of this, although they fell to just 60,000 bpd last month.

“We were told to suspend exports from January and re-route volumes to other destinations,” said a trading source from a Russian company, which actively uses the route.

Reuters