OREANDA-NEWS. April 27, 2010. Due to expiration of the term of office of General Director V.Yu. Razdukhov, at today’s meeting of CPC-R Board of Directors and Extraordinary General Meeting of CPC-K Alexander Tarakanov was elected new General Director of both companies effective May 1, 2010. Mr. Tarakanov was nominated by Transneft representing the interests of the Russian Government Shareholder, reported the press-centre of CPC.

In addition, Amandyk Kultumiev nominated by KazMunaiGaz was approved to the position of Deputy General Director, General Business. The remaining Consortium management team members have retained their positions: First Deputy General Director, Operations – Dennis J. Fahy nominated by Chevron; Deputy General Director, Legal – Evgeny Popov nominated by Rosneft; Deputy General Director, Engineering and Projects, responsible for the CPC Expansion Project implementation – Wayne Wheeler (Chevron); Deputy General Director, Finance – Robert James representing Royal Dutch Shell. Alexander Blagov remains in the office of Deputy General Director, RF Government Relations, and Kanatbek Zhumin remains in the position of Deputy General Director, RK Government Relations; these officers were nominated, respectively, by Transneft and KazMunaiGaz.

The attendees of the above meetings of Consortium governing bodies have also discussed preparations for the forthcoming Annual General Shareholder Meetings of Caspian Pipeline Consortium scheduled for May 2010. In addition, nominations to the managing positions within the Expansion Project organization were approved.

Vladimir Razdukhov was elected CPC General Director in spring 2006 for the term of 4 years. The past period was an important and successful milestone of the Company performance and development. A number of CPC facilities were upgraded, the management quality enhanced, the safety and reliability of the pipeline system as a whole were improved: last year the availability factor has reached 98%. Professional performance of Consortium’s staff has resulted in a stable and accident-free operation enabling to load about 130MMT of Kazakh and Russian crude oil at the CPC Marine Terminal. The Consortium’s financial and economic position improved.

"Reaching of a concord among the CPC Shareholders regarding expansion of the Consortium's capacity up to 67 MMTA and approval of the Expansion Project implementation plan is a major achievement in the history of the CPC project, as actual staged implementation of the Expansion Project has started since the beginning of this year", – stressed CPC General Director Vladimir Razdukhov.

The newly-elected Consortium General Director Alexander Tarakanov stated: "It is a great honor for me to head Caspian Pipeline Consortium at the stage of its expansion. We have much to do for the Expansion Project which will require coherent and efficient work of all CPC staff in close cooperation with the managing companies representing major CPC Shareholders. I am grateful to Vladimir Razdukhov under whose direction I worked in CPC for over two years and who has managed to create an efficient corporate governance mechanism providing sustainable and safe ongoing operation of the pipeline system and laying reliable foundation for further progressing of the CPC project".

Alexander Tarakanov graduated from the Law Department of Lomonosov MSU, worked for the USSR Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, and switched to the private business sphere in 1990. In 2001, he joined Zarubezhneft Company where he rose from a deputy team manager to a department head. In 2006, Alexander Tarakanov was recommended by the Russian Government Shareholder to the position of General Manager, Field Operations, in Caspian Pipeline Consortium where he worked till June 2008 when he was appointed Deputy Vice President of OAO AK Transneft, General Director of Trans Balkan Pipeline B.V., an international engineering company established for the implementation of Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline construction project.