By Vladimir Soldatkin
MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A major expansion of the firstprivate pipeline in the former Soviet Union is running up to oneyear behind schedule, a Russian shareholder said, complicatingoil exports from the Caspian Sea region ahead of a jump inoutput.
Oil majors such as Eni, Shell, ExxonMobil and Total are preparing to launch one of theworld's biggest fields, Kashagan in Kazakhstan, and hope toobtain access to as many export routes as they can.
Delays in expanding the CPC pipeline from Kazakhstan toRussia will therefore limit export options from the landlockedregion, pushing more crude towards Russian state pipelines,China and costly Caspian Sea routes.
"There will be no material pipeline expansion this year, asthe project is six months to a year behind schedule," Russianpipeline monopoly Transneft's vice president MikhailBarkov told Reuters, citing "technical reasons".
Russia is a big shareholder in the CPC pipeline alongsideKazakhstan and U.S. oil major Chevron. CPC, Chevron andKazakhstan's state pipeline firm Kaztransoil declined to commenton the construction schedule.
Barkov said shareholders would convene in Almaty on Sept.17-18 to discuss the project.
The consortium had planned to expand the pipeline's annualcapacity to just under 1 million barrels per day from thecurrent 640,000 bpd as early as the middle of this year. Itwants to boost capacity further to 1.3 million bpd by 2015.
CPC is primarily shipping oil from Kazakhstan's large Tengizand Karachaganak fields to an export terminal near the RussianBlack Sea port of Novorossiisk.
The conduit was launched more than 10 years ago and gave theCaspian Sea region a viable alternative to Russian statepipelines.
Production at Kashagan is due to start later this year,almost 10 years later than planned, and ultimately reach 1million bpd - more than 1 percent of global oil output.
Delays in CPC's expansion have already made Russia asurprise favourite to ship the first oil from Kashagan to worldmarkets, adding to headaches for the world's most expensive oildevelopment.