LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - North Sea Forties crude pricedifferentials weakened on Thursday due to abundant volumes anddespite expectations of lower production from some North Seafields in June. "Naphtha cracks are very poor and they are weighing on lightgrades. Plus there are too many prompt cargoes now whilst theKoreans didn't take much in April," a North Sea trader with atrading house said. In the Platts window, Vitol bought a May 11-13 Forties cargofrom Shell at dated Brent minus 40 cents, some 15 cents weakerthan prices on Wednesday, traders said. Statoil offered to sell a May 17-19 cargo of Oseberg atdated Brent plus $1.10, some 10 cents weaker, traders said. Oseberg features rarely in the Platts window and traderssaid it was another sign that light oil grades were coming underincreased pressure from poor refining margins. The weakening of the differentials came in despiteexpectations of lower loadings of Ekofisk and other Norwegiangrades in June. A major gas pipeline, Norpipe, will undergo a maintenancefrom June 3 to June 24, industry sources told Reuters. Apart from gas production, it will affect oil output fromEkofisk and adjacent fields, which together produce around240,000 barrels per day. A three week maintenance will result in a loss of around 5million barrels of oil or eight Aframax-size tankers, accordingto Reuters calculations, if oil production at the fields isfully shut. BP and ConocoPhillips, which operate the fields, could notprovide immediate comments. Some traders said some players could try to store Ekofiskahead of maintenance works in the hope to resell it later atbetter prices, but other traders said that storing crude wouldbe a loss-making game in the current environment. Platts said on Thursday that it had adjusted the sulphurde-escalator in Forties cargoes bringing it down by $0.10 perbarrel to $0.25 per barrel from May 1. SWAPS * The swaps curve remained in contango, reflecting theabundant supply of crude at the front end: 29-03/5 Jul -75 07-10/5 Jul -54 13-17/5 Jul -37 20-24/5 Jul -34 28-31/5 Jul -34 03-07/6 Jul -36 DATABASE(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Claire Milhench, editing byWilliam Hardy)
Shell announces $4bn share buyback as Q3 profits beat expectations
(Sharecast News) - Oil giant Shell announced a $4bn share buyback on Thursday as it posted better-than-expected third-quarter profits.
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