ASTANA – The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) will relaunch the operation of two single-point moorings (SPM) by Oct. 15, reported Kazakh Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov on Sept. 28 at Kazakhstan International Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference (KIOGE-2022), according to Kazinform.
CPC is the largest international oil transportation project, which is more than 1,500 km long. Photo credit: CPC press service
“The contractors’ issues were resolved. They have the required buoyancy tanks. The first tank should be replaced by Oct. 10, and the second by Oct. 15. All three SPMs should be operational by then,” Akchulakov said.
The minister also commented on the repairs conducted at the Kashagan oil field, saying they cost the country 200,000 barrels per day.
“By Oct. 20, the field will return to the previous production regime of 400,000 barrels per day. You can see that the time frames are roughly similar. If the CPC and Kashagan start working by Oct. 15-20, then there will be no problems at all,” Akchulakov said.
According to him, with the resumption of work at these two sites, Kazakhstan will be able to fulfil this year’s plan to produce 85 million barrels of oil and deliver them to their destination.
The CPC suspended the SPMs operation in August after defects were discovered in subsea hose attachments to the buoyancy tanks.
