Ineos Awaiting Parts for Forties Pipeline Repairs
Ineos, the operator of Britain's Forties crude oil pipeline in the North Sea, was moving forward with a preferred repair option and the timeframe to fix a crack remained unchanged, the company said on Tuesday.
The system, which carries around 450,000 barrels per day of Forties crude to Britain, along with a third of the UK's total offshore natural gas output, has been closed since Dec. 11 after a crack was found.
"The timescale stays the same - two to four weeks from the 11th," Ineos spokesman Richard Longden said, adding that the crack was still stable.
Longden said the company had examined three repair options but gave no further details.
In a statement issued later on Tuesday, Ineos said that custom made parts for some of these options had been made and would be delivered "over the coming days as we progress the preferred method of repair from today".
The Ineos-operated Grangemouth refinery shut down about half of its 200,000 bpd capacity on Friday owing to the pipeline outage.
Reporting by Alex Lawler and Julia Payne
