Ineos lifts restriction on oil & gas flows feeding into Forties pipeline

All restrictions on the flow of oil and gas from platforms feeding into the Forties pipeline system have been fully lifted.

Ineos, the operator of the pipeline system which carries the North Sea oil and gas to shore, said on the 28^th December that all customers and control rooms have now been informed.

Earlier this week, following the completion of repair works on the onshore section of the pipeline at Red Moss, Ineos partially re-started the Kinneil facility.

Ineos said that, as soon as the Kinneil plant is receiving sufficient gas from the North Sea, the company will begin restarting further parts of the plant. There is currently increased flaring at the site as Ineos is progressively starting up the gas processing unit.

Ineos reiterated that, based on current estimates, it expects to bring the pipeline and Kinneil progressively back to normal rates around new year.

As a result of the Forties pipeline shutdown, a number of oil and gas companies have been forced to shut down their production from UK North Sea platforms.

Namely, Serica Energy has reduced its yearly output guidance as its only producing field, the Erskine, uses the FPS as the export route for Erskine condensate. Shell has suspended production from the Shearwater and Nelson platforms in the central North Sea and Nexen has temporarily ceased production from the Buzzard and Scott platforms in the North Sea.

Following the pipeline repairs, Apache informed about the production re-start from its Forties oil field. Also, according to Reuters, production operations are gradually resuming at Shell’s North Sea Shearwater and Nelson oil and gas platforms.