China National Petroleum Corp.'s oil exports from Kazakhstan, piped to Russia's Black Sea for shipping, have been seized on the orders of a Russian court

China National Petroleum Corp.'s oil exports from Kazakhstan, piped to Russia's Black Sea for shipping, have been seized on the orders of a Russian court, Reuters reported, citing traders and industry sources. There was no immediate official explanation and it was unclear which court in Russia had passed the ruling to seize China National's oil, Reuters said. The ruling may have been related to a commercial dispute involving a Russian company, Reuters said, citing an industry source. China National, which owns 90 percent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina Co., ships oil through the ChevronTexaco Corp.-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium. The consortium had planned to raise shipment tariffs 3.3 percent from July, Interfax reported on Tuesday, citing Jan McDonald, general director of the group. The Consortium plans to more than double its shipments of oil from the Caspian Sea region to world markets to 550,000 barrels a day, as Kazakhstan boosts oil output.