OIL EXPORTS JUMP 31%

Russian and Kazakh oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) in April jumped 31 percent from a year earlier as a result of expanded capacity.

Loadings carried from Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea oil deposits to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiisk rose to 916,384 barrels per day (bpd) in April from 698,828 bpd a year earlier, CPC said on Monday.

That was up from 837,682 bpd pumped in March.

CPC exports rose to 32.7 million tonnes in 2013 from 31.8 million a year earlier and plans call for further expansion of the pipeline's capacity to 40 million tonnes this year.

Although it traverses Russia and was developed in conjunction with the Russian government, the pipeline was the first to give the Caspian Sea region and Kazakhstan a viable alternative to more Russian-dominated northern export routes.

The CPC consortium involves Russian state-owned pipeline monopoly Transneft, the state of Kazakhstan, U.S. oil company Chevron and Russia's LUKOIL.

reuters.com