Consortium Ltd., (CPC) has taken the next step in moving oil from western Kazahkstan to the west -- without oil giant Chevron.

Bermuda-based CPC includes state owned and Bermuda-registered Oman Oil Company Ltd., of which Mr. Deuss is president, as well as oil companies from Russia and Kazakhstan. Mr. Deuss is also a CPC director and chairman of the Bermuda Commercial Bank.

The CPC has agreed to start construction of phase one which will increase exports from the former Soviet Union, according to a release yesterday.

"(But) Chevron does not have an ownership position in the CPC,'' the release said.

Chevron needs the CPC pipeline to pump oil west from its Tengizchevroil joint venture in Kazakhstan.

The oil company did not comment yesterday on how, if at all, exclusion from the consortium would impact on transport of Chevron-pumped oil along the new pipeline.

Chevron had apparently considered a $20-billion investment over 40 years and that it may put up much of the capital for the billion dollar construction of the pipeline as well as guarantee to ship oil at an agreed rate in return for 25 percent ownership interest but apparently rejected the idea, not wanting to contribute virtually all the financing.

CPC announced yesterday that phase one, involving capital of about $300 million, will include construction of a 155 mile pipeline from Kropotkin, 31 miles south of the Russian city of Tikhoretsk, to a newly constructed marine terminal on the coast of the Black Sea.

The completion of phase one will allow the export of up to 15 million tonnes annually of crude oil from Russia and Kazakhstan, which at current prices, is over $1.5 billion per year.

Phase one is expected to commence in January 1996 and be operational by January 1997.

Interfax said Oman had offered to provide $150-200 million for the CPC project plus additional financial guarantees.

Russia and Kazakhstan have guaranteed to ship minimum volumes of crude oil through the line's first phase, assuring its financial viability, and Oman will provide all the equity and guarantee the availability of financing for phase one.

The oil pipeline from the Tengiz field in Western Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk is believed capable of producing 700,000 barrels of oil daily at peak production in the year 2010 and will run from Tengiz to Astrakhan and Komsomolskoye in southern Russia, before cutting across the north Caucasus to the Black Sea.

Phase two will transport oil from fields in Western Kazakhstan, including the Tengiz field as well as fields in Azerbaijan, and will allow the export of an additional 62-75 million tonnes of oil annually from Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan.

The CPC was established in June 1992 by Kazakhstan and Oman with Russia joining in 1993.

The governments of Russia, Oman, and Kazakhstan are equal partners in the class A voting shares in the consortium.

As part of the phase one implementation, Oman has agreed to acquire class B shares representing an undivided 25 percent interest in the consortium.

With this new investment, the new shareholding will be Russia, 25 percent, Kazakhstan 25 percent, and Oman 50 percent with voting rights shared equally.