The capacity of the 900-mile pipeline, which carries crude oil from western Kazakhstan to a dedicated terminal in the Black Sea, will increase to 1.4 million barrels per day from its current capacity of 730,000 barrels per day.
The expansion of the pipeline is said to be a critical step forward to enabling the Tengiz expansion, an oil field with estimated recoverable reserves of six billion to nine billion barrels.
CPC will carry Tengiz crude oil and also transport oil from other Kazakh and Russian fields.
The project will be implemented in three phases with capacity increasing progressively from 2012 to 2015.
It will consist of the refurbishment of the existing five pump stations, the addition of 10 new pumping stations, the replacement of a 55-mile section of the line, six new storage tanks and the addition of a third offshore mooring point at the Black Sea terminal, six miles north of the Port of Novorossiysk.
The three largest CPC shareholders, Transneft, KazMunaiGaz (KMG) and Chevron, will provide project management services to the project, which is in the final stages of construction contract negotiations with awards expected in the first quarter 2011.
