North Sea crude production recovering from outages

Norwegian crude oil loadings were recovering Monday after the Oseberg field came on stream following an outage, and some loading resumed at the Statfjord field, state-controlled Equinor said.

In an email, Equinor said Oseberg loadings had resumed after "corrective maintenance" that began on May 8.

At Statfjord, Equinor continued to investigate an apparent oil leak spotted in the vicinity on May 15, but was loading crude from a second facility, Oseberg Loading System B, that was not in in use at the time of the incident, it said.

Several incidents contributed to tightness in the North Sea crude oil market last week, alongside planned maintenance at the Ekofisk and Statfjord fields.

Production was also disrupted at UK fields that provide the Flotta crude blend after a leakage of hydraulic fluid from a valve in the transportation infrastructure.

Repsol Sinopec, the operator of the Flotta terminal, said repairs were ongoing on Monday, however, the terminal itself, located in the Orkney Islands, was still able to load oil.

"Production is currently shut down on Claymore and from the other platforms in the area that come over Claymore (Tartan and Golden Eagle)," Repsol Sinopec said. "However, we are able to take loadings at Flotta. This situation has not impacted that ability."

Oseberg crude, derived from the Oseberg, Brage and Veslefrikk fields, is a contributor to the Platts Dated Brent price assessment process. The Oseberg complex produced nearly 110,000 b/d of oil last year, as well as around 9 million cu m/d of gas.

Statfjord is the loading point for the Statfjord field, but also larger volumes from the nearby Snorre field. The overall flow of oil from Statfjord amounted to around 140,000 b/d last year.

Source: S&P Global