North Sea Ekofisk crude oil supply to rise in July

LONDON: Supply of North Sea Ekofisk crude oil will rise in July from June, according to loading programmes seen by trading sources on Tuesday.

The July programme contains 14 cargoes of 600,000 barrels each, giving a daily supply rate of 271,000 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 13 cargoes and a daily supply rate of 260,000 barrels bpd in June.

Year-on-year, Ekofisk supply will rise by around 3 percent from around 252,000 bpd in July last year.

Ekofisk, together with Brent itself and the Oseberg and Forties crude streams, underpins the dated Brent benchmark price.