North Sea oil output set for sharp fall during September

Oil output from some of the North Sea’s largest crude oil streams is set to fall sharply in September, an export schedule showed yesterday, adding to signs of reduced supply from the home of the global Brent benchmark.

Norway’s Troll crude oil stream is scheduled to load five cargoes in September, down from 14 in August, traders said.

Daily supply will average 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), down from 271,000 bpd in August.

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Troll, operated by Statoil, is usually the North Sea’s second-largest crude oil production stream.

Maintenance work in September at a number of offshore fields is expected to lead to a drop in North Sea output, traders say.

The prospect of lower output is already supporting the price of Brent crude for immediate delivery compared to later months, highlighting the vulnerability of the global benchmark to local supply bottlenecks and squeezes.

Output in September of another Norwegian crude, Gullfaks, is scheduled to fall by one cargo to four cargoes.

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Supply of Danish crude DUC is also down by one cargo to five cargoes, traders said, citing loading programmes.

The Brent benchmark is based on four North Sea crude oils – Brent, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk.

Supply of Forties, the largest stream and the most important for setting prices, is set to fall in September because Nexen plans to close its Buzzard field for maintenance.

For some in the market, the sensitivity of Brent to changes in North Sea output highlights the vulnerability of the global benchmark to local supply bottlenecks and squeezes.

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The full picture on September North Sea output will not be available until later this week as the operators of more than 10 crude streams – groups of fields feeding into one pipeline or export terminal – issue loading programmes to cargo owners.

“The reduction of output elsewhere helps at the margin through an overall reduction in North Sea supplies,” Harry Tchilinguirian of BNP Paribas said.

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