North Sea Crude-Forties weakens as Buzzard returns online

LONDON, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 24 (Reuters) - Forties crude differentials were offered at their weakest in two weeks on Monday as a major North Sea oilfield returned to production after a month-long outage, and as the Brent futures curve steepened against a backdrop of persistent oversupply.

* The refinery maintenance season has led to an overhang of Nigerian crude, and a number of tankers holding unsold North Sea oil and rising tanker rates that have dragged on the market.

* The contango between the first- and second-month ICE Brent futures contracts (LCOc1-LCOc2) increased to $1.00, its widest since Sept. 30, the point at which the previous front-month Brent contract expired.

* The Buzzard oilfield, the largest contributing oilfield to the Forties stream with output of 180,000 bpd, is set to come back online on Tuesday or Wednesday after a month of planned maintenance work, an industry source said.

* Parcel F1115 has been dropped from the November Forties loading programme, according to trading sources, bring overall supply of this grade to 400,000 bpd next month from an original 420,000 bpd.

WINDOW SUMMARY

* Gunvor bid for a cargo of Forties for loading Nov. 21-25 at a discount of 80 cents to dated Brent.

* Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) offered one cargo of Forties for loading Nov. 10-16 via STS (Shanghai: 603322.SS - news) at Scapa Flow from the Calida at a discount of $2.45 to January cash BFOE and a second from the same vessel for loading Nov. 17-23 at a discount of $2.30.

* Petroineos offered a cargo of Brent for loading Nov. 9-16 via STS at Scapa from the Stena Arctica at a discount of 30 cents to the dated benchmark price.

* Shell offered a cargo of Brent for loading Nov. 13-20 via STS at Scapa Flow from the Alfa Britannia at a discount of $2.40 to the January cash BFOE price.

* Glencore (Frankfurt: 8GC.F - news) offered a cargo of Brent for loading Nov. 14-16 at a discount of 60 cents to the dated price.

* Statoil (LSE: 0M2Z.L - news) offered a cargo of Forties for loading Nov. 19-21 at a discount of 45 cents to dated Brent.

* Glencore offered a cargo of Forties for loading Nov. 13-15 at a discount of 45 cents to the dated price.

* Shell offered a cargo of Forties for loading Nov. 8-10 at a discount of 70 cents to dated Brent.

* Shell offered a cargo of Brent for loading Nov. 8-10 at a discount of 70 cents to the dated price.

* Shell offered a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Nov. 13-15 at a discount of 20 cents to dated Brent. There is no quality premium for November-loading cargoes of Ekofisk.

* Brent: Petroineos offered a cargo of Brent on a ship-to-ship (STS) basis from the Stena Arctica at dated Brent minus 50 cents a barrel loading Nov. 14-16, down 10 cents from an offer the previous day.

* Ekofisk: Eni (LSE: 0N9S.L - news) sold to Vitol a cargo of Ekofisk loading Nov. 15-17 at dated Brent minus 20 cents, 5 cents lower than an offer on Thursday.

* Brent therefore remains the cheapest benchmark grade and sets the value of dated Brent. (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by David Evans)