The breach was a spill that occurred during the loading of a Greek-flagged tanker last year at the port of Novorossiysk. The company attributed the accident to equipment problems and said, in response to the court order, that it was acting within the legal framework of the Russian Federation. He added that he would appeal the decision. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is the world’s largest international oil transportation project involving Russian and Kazakh companies to transport crude oil from fields in Kazakhstan and Russia to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk via a 1,500 km pipeline. Chevron has a 15% stake in the company. Media reports said the CPC pipeline was still flowing oil as of Wednesday morning. The pipeline is the largest outlet for Kazakhstan’s oil, which it uses to transport most of its crude to global markets, particularly Europe. Earlier this year, the pipeline was damaged in a storm and most of the oil flow along it was suspended for a month. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium came under fire last year after it reported that the initial oil spill into the Black Sea from the Minerva Symphony was only 200 square meters, totaling 12 cubic meters of crude. It soon emerged that the leak was, in fact, much larger, up to 80 square kilometers, based on a survey of satellite data by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Russian authorities opened a criminal investigation into the incident soon after. Initially, the country’s transport industry regulator, Rostransnadzor, wanted to suspend the operation of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium for 90 days, but the Novorossiysk court reduced this to 30 days. The CPC pipeline has an annual capacity of 35 million tons of crude oil, up from the original 28.2 million tons in place since 2005. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More top reads from Oilprice.com:
