Oil Flow Through UK's North Sea Forties Pipeline Restricted
The flow of oil through the Forties pipeline in Britain's North Sea is being restricted after an unplanned shutdown at the Kinneil processing plant, a spokeswoman for pipeline operator BP said on Thursday.
"Train 1 at Kinneil had an unplanned shutdown on Dec. 1, which is causing some restrictions," the spokeswoman said. "I believe it's still down."
A trader said it was a problem with a compressor, which was affecting all the fields that feed into the Forties Pipeline System (FPS).
"All rates from all fields are down," he said. "I'm expecting lots of deferrals to take place."
The Kinneil terminal receives all the oil from the FPS. According to the BP website, it is capable of processing 715,000 barrels per day of unstabilised crude oil when all three of its trains are operational.
(Reporting by Claire Milhench)
