Hurricane Hydrocarbons' 64,000 BPD Kazakh Transport Problem

Hurricane Hydrocarbons has said that it will ask the operators of Kazakhstan's biggest oil pipeline to transport its oil after the country's government-owned oil company last week killed its bid to buy a stake in the line.

Hurricane, a Calgary based company that produces and refines oil in Kazakhstan, had planned to buy a stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium from BP for $100 million that would give it the right to ship 64,000 barrels a day on the line. Hurricane must now find alternative ways to ship its oil.

“The intent is to contact the management of CPC very shortly and explore with them the conditions under which we could be a third-party shipper,” Bernard Isautier, Hurricane's chief executive officer, said in an interview.

The company has not yet made an application to ship on the CPC line, which is operated by ChevronTexaco Corp., Isautier said. A deadline for Hurricane to buy BP's stake in the line expired Friday after Khazakhstan's state oil company, one of CPC's partners, did not approve the transaction.

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