CPC Caspian Pipeline Consortium

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) is an international joint-stock company that built and operates the CPC oil pipeline, which connects the fields of West Kazakhstan with the Russian Black Sea coast. The length of the oil pipeline is 1510 km.

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Фото: cpc.ru, 2025 г

The shareholders of the joint venture are Rosneft, through the joint venture Rosneft Shell Caspian Ventures Ltd. (Rosneft owns 51% of the shares) and Shell (49% of the shares).

The capacity of the first stage is 28.2 million tons of oil per year, including 22 million tons of oil of Caspian origin. Full capacity was achieved by mid-2004. In November 2004, CPC began receiving Russian oil at the Kropotka NPS in the Krasnodar Territory. Initially, the project was developed with the expectation that its initial throughput capacity would be increased to 67 million tons of oil per year.

History

2025: APU strikes on marine terminal in Novorossiysk reduce oil exports from Kazakhstan by 20% per month

All previous episodes of strikes by the Ukrainian regime on the CPC oil pipeline in Astana were met with comments that Kazakhstan's oil exports continue in "normal mode." In November 2025, when the damage became apparent, the republic's authorities are trying to switch to a route through Baku - which they sought in London and Washington.

A series of attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces on November 25-29 fell on the Main Control Center of the CPC and remote mooring installations, one of which - VPU-2 - was destroyed.

For Kazakhstan, the destruction of one of the three remote mooring installations at the CPC marine terminal in Novorossiysk by Ukrainian BEC means a reduction in oil exports by at least 20% per month ($470 million), which is approximately equal to the monthly budgets of the four regions of the republic.

Prior to the destruction by Ukrainian drones of one of the three berthing installations of the CPC on the Black Sea, about 6 million tons of oil from Kazakhstan or 72 million tons of oil per year were received monthly through this system through Novorossiysk against 1.4 million tons of raw materials going to Baku.

Kazakhstan In called the attack on civilian infrastructure unacceptable and recognized the damage caused to the country. As before, the culprit was not directly named at first. Only a few days later, the country's authorities demanded that Ukraine stop the attacks, but Kiev said that the CPC is a "legitimate target" in the territory. Russia

The Ministry of Energy of the republic announced that they would be forced to redirect exports to alternative routes. Obviously, we are talking about transit through the Western-lobbied "Trans-Caspian route," i.e. through Baku.

Some deputies in Kazakhstan support the strikes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the objects of the CPC.

In the structure of shareholders of the consortium, British BG Overseas Holding Limited controls a 2% stake - not such a big loss when it is necessary to force Astana to redirect its exports through the Middle Corridor.

Although transit through Novorossiysk provides up to 90% of oil exports from Kazakhstan, the blow of Ukrainian BECs clearly fits into the strategy of forcing the authorities in Astana to switch to the logistics of TMTM and the Middle Corridor.

The main problem of Transcaspia is the shallowing of the reservoir of the same name, which in 2025 alone required the allocation of funds in the amount of 42 billion tenge (about $80 million) to deepen the bottom near the port of Aktau. Moreover, a further decrease in the level of the "sea" is predicted.

This, in turn, leads to the underloading of tankers traveling from Kazakh ports to Azerbaijan. Otherwise, ships risk running aground, and therefore have to sacrifice potential volumes of export oil.

And in itself, the cost of logistics is significantly higher than through the CPC system, and is approximately $15 per 1 barrel against $5 to Novorossiysk. And here the cost of unloading in Baku and further transportation by rail through the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia to the port of Poti is not yet taken into account.

The British continue to use their Ukrainian proxies to achieve strategic goals, because otherwise, by military means, it is impossible to force the Kazakh authorities to abandon the cheap and shortest export route through Russia. Well, the main loser will be the budget and, as a result, the people of Kazakhstan.

2024: Revenue - $2.3 billion

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) in 2024 kept oil transportation revenues at $2.3 billion. This was announced on February 26, 2025 by the CEO of CPC Nikolai Gorban at a meeting of shareholders in Abu Dhabi. At the end of the financial year, shareholders received dividends in the amount of $1.3 billion.

The consolidated revenue of CPC for 2023 also amounted to $2.3 billion, while earlier it was predicted that the indicator would grow in 2024 by 8.7% - to $2.5 billion. However, the actual results showed the stability of the consortium's revenues.

General Director of CPC Nikolai Gorban in his speech noted that 63 million tons of oil were shipped at the consortium's marine terminal in 2024. 121 hoses were replaced on remote mooring devices (BGs) during this period. As of February 23, 2025, the current performance of the terminal amounted to 9.8 million tons of oil shipped to 89 tankers.

The shareholders' meeting also discussed the consequences of the recent drone attack on the Kropotkinskaya oil pumping station on February 17, 2025. The company manager presented a detailed report on the damage received, the current condition of the equipment and the progress of mobilizing contractors for restoration work. Shareholders of the consortium expressed their readiness to provide support in matters related to repair work, which, according to preliminary estimates, will take about two months.

The CPC pipeline system is one of the largest investment projects in the energy sector with the participation of foreign capital in the countries. CIS The length of the pipeline along the Tengiz route Novorossiysk is 1511 km. More than two-thirds of all export oil is transported along this route, Kazakhstan as well as raw materials from Russian fields, including those located in the Caspian region.^[1]

2022: Suspension of activities due to environmental violations with blocking of Kazakh oil supplies to Europe

In early July 2022, the Novorossiysk District Court decided to suspend the activities of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) for 30 days after the discovery of environmental violations, the company will appeal this decision.

The beauty of this move from Russia's point of view is that the flow that will be reduced is not Russian oil that can be redirected elsewhere, but oil from neighboring Kazakhstan. Almost 1.5 million barrels per day of oil supplies can be removed from an already tense market with virtually no costs for Russia.

President of Kazakhstan Tokayev spoke in favor of diversifying the supply of Kazakh oil, he named the Trans-Caspian route, which bypasses Russia, as a priority. Tokayev called on American investors of the Tengiz project (Chevron and ExxonMobil) to help with this.

A significant share of oil (about 50-60% as of November 2022), which is loaded in the port of Novorossiysk, is not Russian, but Kazakhstani, transported to the Black Sea through the Transneft pipeline system and loaded onto tankers from the dedicated terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).

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