The Monday evening closure of a key North Sea Brent crude platform, the Cormorant Alpha (See story, 1307 GMT), has not had any marked impact on the key Dated Brent price benchmark assessment.
The outright price of the Dated Brent benchmark -- an assessment of the most competitive of four key North Sea crude grades: Brent, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk -- has fallen since the beginning of the week, Platts data show.
It is only the specific crude grade that runs through the platform, Brent, which has seen some increases because of the closure, while North Sea crudes in general have been marginally supported this week on the back of improving demand.
The relative price of each of the four crudes -- known as their pricing differentials -- to their pricing benchmark, Dated Brent, have risen marginally this week, which North Sea crude traders have attributed to bolstered refining margins and improving demand.
The BNB differential has seen a slightly larger increase, also on the back of improved demand, but, as one trader noted, slightly shorter supply as a result of the platform's closure.
Overall the closure of the platform, even if for a protracted period of time, is unlikely to impact Dated Brent or global oil supply.
The January production for Brent-Ninian Blend was originally slated to be about 135,000 b/d. Due to the outage, this figure will likely decrease, perhaps by as much as 15% if the Brent platform is not operational for another six days as at least one trader believes.
However, of the total production of the four grades that comprise Dated Brent, which in January was slated to be about 950,000 b/d, the shut-in of the just the Brent stream is less significant. This compares with a global demand of about 89 million b/d -- the 90,000 b/d shut-in equates to about 0.1% of total global demand.
