North Sea Forties oil flow restriction lifted -sources

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - A restriction on the amount of oil that can be put through the North Sea's Forties pipeline was lifted last week, trade sources said on Monday, boosting output of the crude that helps set the Brent benchmark.

Oilfields linked to the Forties Pipeline System (FPS) including Buzzard, the largest source of Forties crude, had to lower their output during the restriction, which was removed last Thursday, one of the sources said.

"Buzzard had a bit of a restriction imposed by FPS but it is all back to normal now," another of the sources said.

Oil traders said the flow limitation was probably linked to maintenance work at the Kinneil processing plant, which handles unstabilised crude.

BP, the FPS operator, declined to comment.

(Reporting by Alex Lawler; Editing by Pravin Char)