LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Crude oil along the FortiesPipeline System in the North Sea has been running at a reducedrate since an outage along the system late last week, but is dueto return to normal levels later on Monday or early Tuesday,operator BP said on Monday.
Industry monitor Genscape said Forties crude oil was flowingthrough the pipeline at a daily rate of around 400,000 barrelsper day, down from its estimated average of 488,000 bpd.
A spokeswoman for BP, which operates the pipelinethat carries Forties crude to the Hound Point terminal on theScottish coast, confirmed this was the case.
"It is currently restricted," the spokeswoman said. "Basedon the most recent data, (flows will return to normal) latertoday or tomorrow morning."
Forties is the largest of the four major North Sea crudes,that underpin the dated Brent benchmark, off which most of theworld's crude oil trades are priced.
Prices for Brent itself, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk (BFOE)are used to create the daily dated benchmark. (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by David Evans)