VOL. XLV

No 51/52

23/30-December-2002

CASPIAN

CPC Pipeline Avoids Natural Monopoly Status For Now

Russias Federal Energy Commission (FEC) will not declare the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline a natural monopoly unless it transports crude produced by companies outside the CPC consortium. We will step in as soon as the Caspian Pipeline Consortium accepts just one ton of oil from someone else, said FEC chairman Georgi Kutovoy in Moscow on 16 December.

The CPC pipeline runs 1,560km from...