Russia freezes Chevron joint venture accounts

Russia has frozen the accounts of a Chevron pipeline joint venture, Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which pumps oil from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea, over a back-tax claim, Kommersant business daily said on Wednesday.
It quoted sources at the company as saying that Russia's Federal Tax Service froze CPC's accounts at the Russian subsidiary of ABN Amro bank over back-tax claims of 4.7 billion roubles ($174.7 million).
"Chevron is aware of the Russian tax authorities' claim and fully supports CPC's actions in contesting this claim through the appropriate Russian legal system," Chevron said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
"While collection of the claim prior to the court's review of the legitimacy of the case would be unusual, Chevron would expect CPC to be able to meet a collection order without this affecting its operations," the company said. CPC handles most of the oil exports from the emerging energy giant of Kazakhstan via Russia to the Black Sea.
It operates the only oil pipeline route in Russia not controlled by Russian state monopoly Transneft. A CPC official in Almaty, Millyat Karabalin, had no information on the account freeze when contacted by a Reuters correspondent. Russian Federal Tax Service officials were not available for comment immediately.
Kommersant said CPC had stopped loan payments to shareholders and was expecting fresh tax claims.
Chevron is a 15 percent shareholder in CPC while Russia is a 24 percent shareholder in the consortium. Russia has repeatedly blocked Kazakh plans to double the Caspian Pipeline's capacity from the current 700,000 barrels per day, claiming it would put further strain on the congested Turkish Straits.
But expansion of the Caspian Pipeline is vital for Kazakhstan, which hopes to triple oil output to over 3 million bpd by 2015. Looking for an alternative, the Kazakhs joined in mid-June the mammoth $4 billion Baku-Ceyhan pipeline from Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean, which oil analysts say is a step toward freeing Caspian oil from Russia's stranglehold.
The United States has given heavy political support to the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline as it seeks to counter Russia's control over the region, diversify its own crude supply and lessen its growing dependency on Middle East oil.