The Chevron
Corp. -led Caspian Pipeline Consortium Friday said it has started a $5.4
billion expansion to double capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day by 2015.
"The capacity of the 900-mile [1500 kilometer] pipeline, which carries
crude oil from Western Kazakhstan to a dedicated terminal in the Black Sea,
will increase to 1.4 million barrels a day from its current capacity of 730,000
barrels a day," Chevron said in a statement.
The project will be implemented in three phases with capacity increasing
progressively from 2012 to 2015, Chevron said.
The pipeline, which has been operating for ten years, ships crude from the
Tengiz and Karachaganak fields in Kazakhstan to Russia's Black Sea port of
Novorossiysk.
CPC shareholders include OAO Lukoil Holdings , OAO Transneft, Royal Dutch Shell,
ExxonMobil Corp., Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGas and Italy's Eni SpA