Russian court orders halt to Caspian oil pipeline

Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which takes oil from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea via one of the world's largest pipelines, has been told by a Russian court to suspend activity for 30 days although sources said exports were still flowing.

CPC, which handles about 1 per cent of global oil, said the ruling to suspend operations related to paperwork on oil spills and said the consortium, which includes US firms Chevron and Exxon, had to abide by the ruling which was issued on Tuesday.

Two trading sources familiar with the terminal operations told Reuters oil exports from the CPC terminal on the Black Sea were continuing on Wednesday morning, after Tuesday's ruling.