Russia gives go-ahead for Kazakh pipeline feasibility study

Reports from Moscow say Russia has approved a feasibility study for the building of an oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea resort of Novorossysk.

The Interfax news agency says that the international consortium building the pipeline the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) announced the move -- the final stage before the start of construction, expected later this year.

Correspondents say the pipeline will be more than one-thousand-five-hundred-kilometres long and is crucial for the exploitation of the huge Kazakh oil reserves.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service