Forties Oil Shipments Delayed 3 Days on Shut Pipe

(Bloomberg) — Forties oil shipments will be delayed by as much as three days in May as the closure of the pipeline that pumps the crude from about 70 fields in the North Sea cuts production, oil traders said.

Cargoes loading in May are delayed from two to three days, according to three shippers of Forties oil who declined to be named because of company policy. Richard Grant, a spokesman for BP Plc, the operator of the Forties Pipeline System, declined to comment.


The price of Forties cargoes rose to the highest in almost two weeks after BP shut down the Forties Pipeline System yesterday, forcing the closure of about 40 percent of the U.K.’s oil production. The pipeline was shut as a 48-hour strike at Ineos Group Holdings Plc’s Grangemouth refinery in Scotland cut power and steam supplies needed to keep it operating.

“As a result of the impact of the Ineos industrial action on the Forties blend shipping program, we have notified the affected lifters of the necessary changes to their scheduled Forties blend loading dates,” BP said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday.

Bloomberg