Rosneft wants to farm out part of its CPC stake

MOSCOW�State-owned Russian oil company Rosneft is ready to sell a portion of its stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), company Vice-Pres. Sergei Oganesyan said at a briefing in Moscow last week.

CPC is building an oil export pipeline from western Kazakhstan to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. Rosneft is committed to transporting 2.7 million tonnes/year of oil in the pipeline. However, it does not have that much crude available to ship.

Rosneft owns a 7.5% stake in the project jointly with Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Other participants are Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Co. (15%), LukArco BV (12.5%), Mobil Caspian Pipeline Co. (7.5%), Agip International (NA) NV (2%), British Gas Overseas Holdings Ltd. (2%), Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC (1.75%), and Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC (1.75%). In addition, Russia owns 24%, Kazakhstan 19%, and Oman 7%.

The 28.2 million tonne/year line is scheduled for completion in mid-2001. Capacity of the 1,580-km pipeline ultimately will reach 67 million tonnes/year after Phase 2 of the project is completed. Costs are estimated at $2.4 billion, rising to $4.2 billion by 2015.