The expansion of a key Kashagan oil pipeline is up to one year behind schedule, Russian pipeline major Transneft has warned.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium planned to expand the pipeline’s annual capacity to just under 1million barrels per day from current 640,000 bpd by mid-2013, with further expansion expected to increase that number to 1.3million bpd by 2015.
But the CPC pipeline shareholder Transneft said today the expansion will be put back by up to a year due to “technical reasons”.
“There will be no material pipeline expansion this year, as the project is six months to a year behind schedule,” Mikhail Barkov, Transneft vice president, told Reuters.
The delays are expected to limit oil export opportunities from Kazakhstan’s newest oil field to Russia, forcing the use of more costly Caspian Sea routes, as well as Russia’s state-owned pipelines.
One of the world’s biggest oil fields, Kashagan is set to launch later this year – almost 10 years past the original due date – and the peak production is expected to reach 1million bpd.
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