Nexen Eyes North Sea Buzzard Restart

The operator of the North Sea Buzzard oilfield is looking at restarting the field later on Tuesday, trading sources said, potentially adding supply to a market already under pressure from a glut of crude in the Atlantic Basin.

Three sources said Calgary-based Nexen was looking to bring production back online on Tuesday afternoon as it tries to ramp up output after summer maintenance, with a series of aborted restarts. Nexen was bought by China's state-backed CNOOC last year.

Buzzard is closely-watched by oil traders worldwide as it is the biggest contributor to the Forties oil stream, the largest of the four benchmark crudes underpinning the price of international benchmark Brent crude oil futures.

The field shut on Saturday, industry sources said on Monday, the second closure in a week as Nexen tried to restart the field for the first time since beginning maintenance in July.

A spokeswoman at Nexen on Tuesday did not comment on any potential restart date or the duration of the shut down, but said in a statement the firm has stopped production at the field to allow for more maintenance work.

"As planned and in accordance with our safety procedures, production on Buzzard has been shut down to allow for demobilisation of a drilling rig," the statement said.

The same reason was given for the first shut down last week, when the firm said there was a small window of good weather it wanted to take advantage of to carry out the rig demobilisation.

Brent crude oil futures were down 72 cents a barrel at $102.07 a barrel at 0956 GMT on Tuesday, close to a 14-month low.

Reporting by David Sheppard