Oil trades below $65 bpd after volatile week caused by North Sea pipeline woes

Oil steadied below $65 a barrel in London after a volatile week in which the market was shaken by the shutdown of a North Sea pipeline that underpins the Brent benchmark.

According to Bloomberg report, futures rose 0.2 percent, leaving prices in London little changed in the week. They jumped above $65 for the first time since 2015 earlier on Tuesday after the Forties pipeline in the U.K. shut down because of a crack. Those gains were eroded as the International Energy Agency’s voiced doubts the market would fully rebalance in 2018, diverging from the view of OPEC.

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“It’s been volatile,” Torbjorn Kjus, analyst at DNB Bank ASA, said by phone. If the Forties pipeline is “out for a month, it should have a positive effect” on prices as 10 million barrels of oil supply could easily be lost to the market.

The pipeline halt further boosted prices after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia had already to extend their production curbs until the end of 2018. Yet doubts persist about whether another 12 months of cuts will finally eliminate the inventory surplus that’s weighed on the market for three years.

Brent for February settlement added 12 cents to $63.43 a barrel at 11:26 a.m. on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange after climbing 1.4 percent on Thursday. Prices are up about 12 percent this year. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $6.02 to February West Texas Intermediate.

WTI for January delivery was at $57.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 36 cents. Total volume traded was in line with the 100-day average. Prices gained 44 cents to $57.04 on Thursday.

The Forties halt forced Ineos, the operator of the pipeline, to declare force majeure, a contractual term that allows it to miss deliveries due to events beyond its control. That’s the first time in nearly 30 years that such a condition has been declared in the North Sea, according to Gary Ross, founder of PIRA Energy, now part of S&P Global Platts.

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