Akchulakov said when repairs at CPC complete

Energy Minister of Kazakhstan Bolat Akchulakov said that this week the repair of one of the VPUs of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium is being completed, Kazpravda.kz correspondent reports.

“Today the situation is as follows: the repair work, actually, is completed. They were held intermittently due to weather conditions. The replacement of pipes is completed, yesterday they were pressure tested, filled with water to identify any problem areas in order to avoid spills. Today it was expected that we would drain the water, drive the tanker, and it would start working. If VPU-3 (remote mooring facility - ed.) starts working today, then 100 percent of the export capacity of the oil pipeline will be restored,” Bolat Akchulakov said on the sidelines of the Majilis.

According to him, by the end of this week the CPC should be fully operational. There are two VPUs.

“The third VPU will be under repair, but it was in reserve. Two VPUs always worked. One was in reserve so two is enough. In general, we expect the download to begin today. If there are strong waves and stormy, the ship may not come to the pier. But these are features that we cannot control,” the Minister of Energy summed up.

Recall that in March 2022, a storm damaged the VPU of the sea terminal near Novorossiysk, through which most of Kazakhstan's export oil flows. In this regard, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium was forced to suspend the operation of the said VPU.