North Sea Crude-Forties weaker, Buzzard returns

* Forties bid slightly lower to dated +5 cents * Buzzard back from maintenance, pumping 180,000 bpd * Shell gives support for Platts escalator proposal LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - North Sea Forties crudedifferentials slipped on Tuesday as Buzzard made a successfulreturn from maintenance and the continued outage of the Brentpipeline system was thought to have little impact on the widermarket. Britain's Buzzard oilfield was said to be pumping at 180,000barrels per day (bpd), just shy of its 200,000 bpd capacityfollowing planned weekend maintenance. "It's looking to push on today," a trade source said. A BP spokesman confirmed that the Kinneil oilterminal, where Forties comes ashore, had completed the repairsto one of its separators last week so offshore flows are notrestricted. But the Brent pipeline system remains shut following a leakat the Cormorant Alpha platform, with no indication when it willreopen. Traders said it would make little difference to Fortiesdifferentials as most Brent is taken into Royal Dutch Shell's system. There are only a handful of other refinerybuyers, and these are likely to have met their needs for thismonth and won't need to seek alternatives. "People are already covered," a trader said. "They arewaiting for the new programme, and if there is an issue it's forShell, which runs most of the Brent." He added that with Forties cargoes still available, themarket was well supplied in the short term. Separately, Shell has given its support for a proposal byoil pricing agency Platts for the introduction of crude priceescalators in the BFOE market from June 2013. FORTIES * Total bid for Forties loading around March 28-31, endingat dated plus 5 cents. This was less than its final bid onMonday for the same dates at dated plus 10 cents. * Mercuria offered a Forties cargo loading on March 22-24 atdated plus 10 cents. * The last known Forties trade was done on Friday, whenPhibro sold a March 19-21 cargo to Morgan Stanley at May BFOEplus 70 cents. That was equal to roughly dated plus 5 cents. * April loading programmes for the four benchmark-settinggrades are expected to emerge around March 7. SWAPS * The swaps curve was not available as of 1710 GMT. Pleasecheck page for further updates. DATABASE