Forties Pipeline System reopens in time for the New Year

On 11^th December, INEOS the owner of the Forties Pipeline System, had discovered a hairline crack in the pipeline at Red Moss near Netherley. The crack continued to grow upon monitoring and the entire system was subsequently shutdown. INEOS announced this morning that the repairs are "mechanically" complete with the system being restarted - export rates should resume to previous levels around the new year.

The system carries c.450mbbl/d of production from the North Sea to the Kinneil processing facility in Scotland. The 235 mile pipeline links more than 80 North Sea fields and delivers almost 40% of UK North Sea production. Upon its outage, Brent crude jumped to USD65/bbl signalling the importance of North Sea production to the global oil markets.