June 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Chevron Corp.-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium reported its first profit in 2007 after increasing the tariff to pump oil from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea.

The group's net income totaled $423 million last year, it said in an e-mailed statement today. The venture in September agreed to raise the tariff to pump oil to $38 per ton, from $30.24. The pipeline began exporting crude in 2001.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium link, the main crude export pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea, will pump 33.8 million metric tons of crude oil this year (676,000 barrels a day), compared with 33 million tons in 2007, General Director Vladimir Razdukhov said at a conference in Paris last week.

The partners plan to invest $50 million studying how to expand the link by 2013, with results expected by mid-next year. The group will spend at least $2.5 billion boosting capacity to more than 1.3 million barrels a day, from about 670,000 barrels a day now.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in Paris via the London newsroom at egismatullin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 3, 2008 05:41 EDT