Europe: Chevron eyes Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline stake

CHEVRON is eager to participate in the new Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, between Bulgaria and Greece, as a means of exporting crude produced by TengizChevroil joint venture in Kazakhstan, according to sources at the US major. TengizChevroil will soon increase production from the Tengiz oilfield to more than 0.5m barrels a day (b/d), but the lack of spare capacity in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC)'s 0.64m b/d export system from northern Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk, on Russia's Black Sea coast, could frustrate its plans. CPC says it will increase its export capacity to more than 1.3m b/d – but sources claim the consortium has told Kazakhstani producers that a condition of doing so