Forties Pipe Operational Again

Ineos confirmed December 30 that the Forties Pipeline System in the North Sea, which it owns and operates, was fully operational. Force Majeure declared December 13 was also lifted, it added.

All restrictions on the flow of oil and gas from platforms feeding into the pipeline system have been lifted and virtually all platforms are now on line, Ineos added December 30.

Serica Energy, a co-owner of the Erskine field, confirmed January 3 that production has resumed following the successful repair of the Forties Pipeline System. Erskine is a high pressure, high temperature gas/condensate field operated by Chevron (50% equity) in which Chrysaor holds a 32% stake and Serica 18%. Erskine was shut in on 11 December; Serica said during the last few days, production has gradually been restarted at increasing rates with production currently around 2,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day net to Serica.  

Oil and associated gas production was shut in upstream of a hairline crack on an onshore section near Aberdeen of the 235-mile Forties Pipeline that links 85 North Sea oil and gas assets to the UK mainland. 

UK NBP prices have been eased since the Forties force majeure declaration, which occurred a day after an explosion at Austria's Baumgarten gas hub halted Russian transit flows and an outage on the Norwegian Troll gasfield – both significant disruptions that lasted less than 24 hours. Month-ahead NBP (January delivery) closed at 60.38p/th December 13, but by close on January 2 the day-ahead contract (January 3 delivery) was assessed at 52p/th and the generally colder month of February, when storage inventory is expected to be lower, was at 54.83p/th, according to traders.