North Sea Crude-Diffs hold despite looming Buzzard maintenance

LONDON: North Sea crude differentials held unchanged on Wednesday in spite of a prospective drop in supply of Forties when a major field partially closes for maintenance in the coming weeks.

The Buzzard oilfield will partially close for planned maintenance in July, resulting in an ouput decline of 30-40 percent, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

Buzzard, which produces about 180,000 barrels per day, is the largest contributing field to the Forties crude oil stream, which in turn is the largest in the North Sea.

Forties differentials, however, remained unchanged from their multi-month lows after a series of offers at higher levels failed to elicit buying interest.