Chevron-Texaco, Russian Sovkomflot Agree to Cooperate

The US Chevron-Texaco corporation and Russia's Sovkomflot have signed a cooperation agreement, which provides, among other things, for transporting certain quantities of crude oil of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) by the Russian company's tankers. The agreement also covers technological exchange, the training of personnel, and collective decisions concerning the safety of petroleum transportation. According to the press service of Sovkomflot, used under this agreement will be modern tankers the company recently commissioned from world's leading shipbuilders. The capacities of these vessels fluctuate between 150,000 and 160,000 tonnes of crude. Cooperation between Chevron-Texaco and Sovkomflot began earlier this year.

The first tanker was loaded with crude delivered by the CPC from the Tengiz oilfield in western Kazakhstan to the port of Novorossiisk in October 2001. The Chevron-Texaco corporation owns 15% of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. The initial annual throughput capacity of the pipeline amounts to 28 million tonnes of crude. The new exporting route from the Caspian region became operational in November 2001.

Judging by its market value, the Chevron-Texaco corporation, whose headquarters is in San Francisco, is the second largest energy producer in the US and the fifth largest in the world. It is engaged in full-cycle gas and oil production, including prospecting, field development, extraction, refining, marketing, transportation, retail, and electricity production.

The 100% government-owned Sovkomflot is among the largest ship owner of the Russian Federation. The combined deadweight of its 70 vessels amounts to 3 million tonnes, which is about 30% of the total Russian sea fleet.