Forties oil, gas deliveries halted in first North Sea…

LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Deliveries of crude oil and natural gas through the Forties pipeline are still under force majeure and operator INEOS said on Thursday there was no timeline yet for repair work that is expected to last several weeks.

The 169-km long pipeline, which carries around a quarter of all North Sea crude output and around a third of Britain’s total offshore gas production, has been closed since Monday, following the discovery of a small crack in part of the system onshore in Scotland.

According to Reuters news archives, this is the first declaration of force majeure on shipments of a North Sea crude in many years.

A spokesman for privately-owned INEOS, which runs the 200,000-barrel per day Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, said the company continued to assess the situation.

“The pipeline has been in place since 1975 and has been operating since then,” INEOS spokesman Richard Longden said.

“It is a unique instance. It just happens to have been on INEOS’ watch, shortly after we acquired it.”

INEOS bought the system from BP in late October for $250 million.

Forties crude is the biggest of the streams of oil supply that come from the North Sea, one of the world’s oldest crude basins, and underpins the international dated Brent benchmark price.

(Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Jane Merriman)

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