Oil Briefs

Growing problems cause North Sea delays, shutdowns

London (Reuters) - The UK's huge Britannia gas field in the North Sea was shut after flows were halted at 1900 GMT on Thursday due to technical problems, field operator Conoco said yesterday.

"As of now (Britannia) is still shut and there are no estimates on when it will be brought back," a Conoco spokeswoman told Reuters. She declined to specify the nature of the technical problems.

Britannia, one of the North Sea's largest fields, has the capacity to produce about 760 million cubic feet of gas per day. UK gas production in March averaged 12,325 million cubic feet per day, according to consultants Wood Mackenzie.

Meanwhile, the UK North Sea Forties crude oil system is facing production-related delays that have caused deferrals of June-loading cargoes, trade sources said yesterday. "It's a complete mess," said one lifter of Forties crude. "The only explanation can be that there is less volume produced than expected."

The sources said cargoes had been rescheduled on a widely varied basis, with some encountering five-day delays but some second decade stems unchanged from their original dates. One trader familiar with the terminal said no cargoes had been cancelled and the production-related problems were relatively small, meaning they could be contained within June.

BP, the operator of the 800,000 barrel per day (bpd) Forties pipeline that transport oil and gas liquids from more than 25 offshore fields to Kinneil near Grangemouth, was not immediately available for comment.

Traders expressed some dismay that BP had not taken action to reissue the loading programme given all the shifting of loading dates, including a number of voluntary deferrals. The June programme for Forties originally consisted of 32 total cargoes for a total 19.6 million barrels, down from May's planned 21.75 million barrel schedule.

Forties, the UK's biggest and oldest North Sea field, has been encountering production problems on and off for the past year, which has sometimes forced cancellations in loading programmes and deferrals of cargoes.

Earlier this year BP said the 80,000 bpd Foinaven field would be closed for maintenance for two weeks during the second quarter while other Forties oil platforms would be shut in from the third quarter of the year.

Bergesen to sell 4 tankers to Frontline consortium

Oslo (Reuters) - Norwegian shipping group Bergesen said yesterday it had made an preliminary agreement to sell four tankers to a consortium led by tanker operator Frontline. Bergesen said in a statement the deal, which included two tankers and contracts to build two new tankers, would give the company a profit of about $42 million.

The sales price of the two tankers was $164 million, while the new contracts had a total value of $157 million, it said. The four tankers were part of a series of eight tanker projects that Bergesen acquired from the Hitachi yard in Japan in January 2000.

The tankers, which have a deadweight of 296,000 tonnes, will be delivered to the consortium of partners of Tankers International led by Frontline in June or July 2001.

BP, Conoco in Norwegian Sea exploration accord

Oslo (Reuters) - Oil majors BP and Conoco have made a joint exploration agreement for non-licenced areas in the Norwegian Sea, the companies said in a joint statement yesterday. The statement said the two companies would team up to search a 120,000 square kilometre field off Norway's western coast ahead of the government's issue of new licences, expected in the fourth quarter 2001.

"Both BP and Conoco have considerable strength and experience in deep-sea technology, which we feel will give us a good competitive position in this important area," John Pickard, head of BP's Norwegian unit, said in the statement.

Murphy Oil sees Q2 profits in line with estimates

El Dorado, Arkansas (Reuters) - Murphy Oil Corp said yesterday that it expects to report second-quarter earnings about in line with Wall Street estimates. The integrated oil company said in a statement that profits for the quarter should be between $1.90 per share and $2.10 per share.

Wall Street analysts had been expecting the company to earn in the range of $1.43 to $2.15 cents per share with a consensus of $1.92 cents per share, according to estimates from research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.

The guidance takes into account projected softness in Murphy's refining and marketing margins, the El Dorado, Arkansas-based company said.