This past month, oil shipments through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s terminal at Novorossiysk fell to the lowest monthly level since February 2006, the company said in a statement.

During October 2012, the terminal pumped 2.228 million tpy, or 561 613 bpd, down 11% from 2.506 million tpy earlier. The group shipped 2.144 million tpy in February 2006, according to its website.

CPC, the only operator of a crude export link in Russia with foreign shareholders, loaded its first tanker at Novorossiysk on 13 October, 2001.  Since 2005, the company, with the use of flow improvers, has increased its transportation volumes to capacity of 35 million tpy.

The CPC pipeline, whose biggest corporate shareholder is Chevron Corp. with a 15% stake, runs from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea. Russia owns 31% while Kazakhstan owns 20.75%. Exxon Mobil Corp., OAO Lukoil and a joint venture between OAO Rosneft and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are among other shareholders.

Edited from various sources by Cecilia Rehn.