North Sea BFOE crude oil loadings to dip in February

(Adds comment, prices, data)

LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Supply of the North Sea crude oil

that underpins the Brent benchmark will fall modestly in

February, according to Reuters calculations based on loading

programmes provided by trade sources on Monday.

Brent is based on four crude streams: Brent itself, Forties,

Oseberg and Ekofisk (BFOE). They are scheduled to load an

average 1.013 million barrels per day (bpd) in February,

compared with a final average of 1.031 million bpd reported in

January.

Differentials for the four major North Sea crude grades have

risen sharply over the second half of December, driven in part

by availability of oil for loading in that period drying up due

to demand from Asian buyers.

Based on Reuters shipping data, some 20 million barrels of

oil have sailed, or are en route, to Asia from Hound Point, the

loading point for Forties crude, in the final three months of

the year, with 8 million of that total moving in December.

"Differentials are very strong, Forties is at multi-year

highs and has been supported by flows going to the Far East (Kuala Lumpur: 5029.KL - news) ,"

Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob said.

Differentials for Forties, the largest of the four streams

that underpin the dated Brent benchmark, ended 2015 at their

highest since February 2014, at a premium of around $1.20 to the

dated price (BFO-FOT).

"The North Sea is pretty strong and that's not the case for

all the (physical) markets ... It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) would be difficult to fetch

those numbers if there was a glut of oil on the water, sitting

in Europe," Jakob said.

Below is a table showing the size of the February BFOE

loading programme in barrels per day (bpd):

Feb Original Jan Revised

Brent 144,828 135,000

Forties 455,172 522,580

Oseberg 124,137 116,000

Ekofisk 288,621 258,000

TOTAL (Swiss: FP.SW - news) 1,012,757 1,031,580

(Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Susan Thomas)