Forties cargoes added after Buzzard shut-in delay

OREANDA-NEWS. Two cargoes have been added to June's programme of Forties loadings after a maintenance closure on the grade's largest contributing field was delayed until October.

Maintenance on the Buzzard field — the largest contributor to the Forties blend — has been deferred from June until October. As a result two more cargoes have been added to the programme of Forties loadings for June. One 600,000 bl cargo has been scheduled for 24-26 June and allocated to Nexen, while another will load on 27-29 June for Eni.

The addition of the two cargoes would have boosted the number of June loadings to 22, but an early-June loading Forties cargo has today been advanced to load on 29 May–1 June. As a result, May's loadings will rise to 21 — or 400,000 b/d, while June's loadings will average 420,000 b/d.

Another cargo was added to the Forties programme last week, with one cargo each added to the programme of Ekofisk loadings in May and June.

Loadings of the North Sea's four benchmark grades — Brent, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk — will now average 860,000 b/d in June, down from May's 923,000 b/d. Over the first half of the year, loadings of the benchmark grades will average 898,000 b/d, a rise of 1pc from last year.

The Buzzard maintenance had been expected to cut the field's output to just 126,000 b/d for June as a whole, down from 161,000 b/d in May, according to figures from BP — the operator of the Forties Pipeline System. The forecasts — which are now expected to be revised — suggest any closure of the field would have lasted for no more than a week. The field's operator Nexen said the maintenance will now take place in October. No maintenance is planned for Forties Pipeline System in October, suggesting other contributing fields to the Forties blend will continue to produce as normal.