LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Britain's Buzzard oilfield in theNorth Sea is pumping below capacity at around 150,000 barrelsper day (bpd) following a problem with a separator at theKinneil oil terminal on the Scottish coast, trade sources saidon Tuesday.
The BP Kinneil oil stabilisation and gas separationplant receives crude through the Forties pipeline and separatesit for shipping via the Hound Point terminal or for furtherprocessing at the nearby Grangemouth refinery.
A BP spokesperson said work is being undertaken to replace apart at one of Kinneil's separators. "We hope to have itoperational later this week," he said.
Buzzard is the largest contributor to the Forties crudeblend, the most important of the North Sea crudes underpinningthe Brent crude benchmark. Market participants said thatproblems at Kinneil could have restricted offshore flows.
Buzzard should pump at around 200,000 bpd, and had rampedback up to its full capacity last Friday following an outageearlier in February.
However, four days of pipeline inspection maintenance arescheduled to begin on Friday, so Buzzard'soutput rates are expected to remain lower than usual for alittle while longer.
Lower-than-expected output from Buzzard over the last twoweeks has meant that about eight Forties cargoes for Februaryand March have had their loading dates pushed back.
Buzzard is operated by Canada's Nexen, which hasbeen taken over by CNOOC Ltd. Nexen'sspokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
BP (BP.)
