Caspian pipeline's daily oil throughput declines six per cent in May

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) reduced daily oil pumping in May by six per cent from April to 5.906 million tonnes (1.51 million barrels per day), according to an industry source and Reuters calculations.

CPC, which carries more than 80 per cent of all Kazakh oil exports, connects the Tengiz field in western Kazakhstan and several others with the CPC marine terminal in Russia's Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka, near Novorossiisk.

The source said that Kazakh oil exports via CPC fell to 5.386 million tons in May from 5.523 million tons a month earlier while Russian oil supplies via CPC were 0.52 million tons in May, against 0.57 million tons in April.

The CPC consortium does not comment on its operations.

Daily oil pumping in May was reduced by maintenance at the pipeline.

A pumping station on the CPC pipeline in Russia is back in service after being damaged in February, operator CPC said late last month.

In mid-February the Kropotkinskaya oil pumping station for the CPC pipeline, located in the Krasnodar region, was damaged by drones and taken out of operation.

CPC's shareholders are Russia, which owns 31 per cent, Kazakhstan (20.75 per cent), Chevron (15 per cent) and other private companies.

(Reporting by Reuters Editing by David Goodman)