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EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil
Ineos pushes Forties closure back to 2021
UK
The pipeline handles around 40% of the UK’s oil.
UK-BASED Ineos has pushed back the shut- down of the North Sea’s Forties Pipeline System (FPS) until spring 2021, it confirmed in a state- ment on April 7.
The 600,000 barrel per day (bpd) system, which handles around 40% of the UK’s oil and gas, had been scheduled to close down in June for major maintenance. Ineos then delayed the closure until August at the earliest, amid con- cerns about bringing workers together amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In its latest update, Ineos said it had post- poned the start of work until next year after this had been requested by the majority of its cus- tomers. All customers have been informed of the decision, it said.
“In making this announcement it is hoped that customers and the supply chain will now be able to plan with greater certainty,” Ineos said. Customers will be notified of the exact start date
of the shutdown as soon as possible, it added. While Ineos’ move will be welcomed by many customers, it will further add to the growing glut
in the global oil market this year.
“This just adds another ripple to the growing
oversupply pool of global liquids – an overhang for Q2 2020 that is already so incomprehensibly massive that it will eventually force shut-ins as oil prices fall below short-run marginal costs and logistical challenges arise,” Norway’s Rys- tad Energy commented after the first delay was announced.
UK operators have made dramatic cuts to capital spending in response to the oil demand destruction caused by the COVID-19 crisis. However, the sector benefits from operat- ing costs of under $20 per barrel on average. Almost 90% of UK production costs below this threshold, according to a recent report by Aber- deen-based Westwood Global Energy. ™
Iran-Turkey gas pipe still offline two weeks after terror attack
TURKEY
The blast occurred in a hotbed of Kurdish opposition in Turkey
IRANIAN gas flows to Turkey that were stopped 14 days ago after a suspected terrorist attack on a pipeline have yet to resume, IRNA reported on April 12.
The exact cause of the explosion that hit the pipeline near the Gurbulak border crossing in the eastern Turkish province of Agri remains unverified, but the location where the blast took place is amid a hotbed of Kurdish opposition in Turkey. Kurdish separatist groups have previ- ously targeted infrastructure in eastern Turkey near the border with Iran.
National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said that unlike previous incidents involving such damage which were dealt with within three days,
the damage on this occasion has not been fixed. Turkish company BOTAS was assigned to carry out the repairs.
NIGC said it believed that the delays in fixing the destroyed pipeline connection were partly caused by the workload Turkey faces in fighting its coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. It was distracting from the situation with the pipeline, it added.
Mehdi Jamshidi Dana, director of dis- patching at NIGC, said the Iranian side had informed Turkish counter-parties that they would be able to fix the ruptured pipeline in “just under a week”, but was yet to hear back from Turkey.™
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