North Sea Crude-Forties weaker, poor refinery demand weighs

* Forties offered at dated minus 25 cents * Two VLCC shipments for South Korea revealed * Oseberg's April loading programme emerges LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - North Sea Forties crudedifferentials tumbled on Wednesday as European refinerymaintenance weakened demand for crude feedstock and the Buzzardoilfield continued to operate at full capacity, ensuring amplesupply. Traders said a few March cargoes were still unsold justahead of the release of the April loading programmes, asEurope's refiners are now in the middle of spring turnarounds. In addition, Britain's Buzzard oilfield is now back up toits full operating capacity of around 200,000 barrels per day(bpd) after completing its planned weekend maintenance. Some support for Forties should emerge if arbitrageshipments to South Korea resume towards the end of March.Shipping fixtures showed that Shell was linked to two VLCCs totake Forties to South Korea - the Seeb is set to sail from HoundPoint on March 20 and the Abqaiq is fixed for April 1. A previous booking of the Al Salmi by Shell for a March 20departure looked to have failed, and some traders were scepticalabout whether these new shipments would actually go ahead. South Korea's refiners are undergoing maintenance in Marchand April but vessels leaving Hound Point towards the end ofMarch would arrive just as refineries come back online. The first of the BFOE loading programmes emerged, withOseberg expected to load some 120,000 bpd in April, up from116,000 bpd in March. FORTIES * There were no deals in the window on Wednesday butactivity increased with three bids and two offers. * Total was back again bidding for Forties loading aroundMarch 28-30, ending at flat to dated Brent. This is down fromits last bid for similar dates on Tuesday at dated plus 5 cents. * Chevron was targeting March 28-31, ending at dated minus 5cents, and Phibro was bidding for Forties loading around March22-25 at dated minus 40 cents. * Mercuria again offered its Forties cargo loading on March22-24, ending at dated minus 25 cents. This is down from itslast offer on Tuesday at dated plus 10 cents. * Statoil offered a March 24-26 Forties cargo at dated plus10 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 Brent and Forties areexpected to emerge on March 7. SWAPS * The swaps curve was not available as of 1710 GMT. Pleasecheck page for further updates. DATABASE