User:Shaun Ambre

Output Has Been Shut Down At The Buzzard Oil Field

At the North Sea Buzzard oil field, output has been shut down due to a problem with a gas compressor on the field newest platform over the weekend. Nexen spokeswoman Patti Lewis informed that on Saturday morning, there was a bearing failure on one of the gas compressors on the fourth platform at Buzzard that resulted in smoke being emitted. However, repairs are under way and during this maintenance period, production has been halted and expects production will ramp up over the next 24-48 hours.

Interim Chief Executive Kevin Reinhart identified fixing Buzzard's problems as one of a handful of priorities for the company in February. It is looking to regain favour with investors after months of production glitches, delays and the loss of Yemen operations, which culminated in January with the exit of CEO Marvin Romanow. Over the past year, the company has been struggling with reliability issues at Buzzard, resulting in frequent downtime. Another major initiative is boosting the production at the Long Lake oil sands project in Alberta closer to capacity and Nexen reported some progress last week.

Traders said that on Saturday, the oil field's output fell to less than half and was shut down completely on Sunday. It normally pumps about 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day. So far, at least one cargo loading has been delayed since the shutdown, although Nexen did not confirm that the two events were directly related. According to trade sources, cargo F0411 will load by May 2-4. The loading dates for the cargo have been repeatedly delayed from the initial schedule to load April 14-16. Almost, more than half of the April loading Forties cargoes have been already disrupted by production glitches before the latest shutdown. The shutdown limited the fall in ICE Brent futures prices compared with U.S. crude futures. ICE Brent crude futures were trading 61 cents lower at $118.15 a barrel by 4.31 p.m.

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