With Repairs Complete, Nexen Pushes to Restart Production at Buzzard

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Repairs are complete at Nexen Inc.’s (NXY) Buzzard oil field in the North Sea, shut since Saturday after an incident, the company’s interim president and chief executive said Wednesday.

“[We are] moving to restart the facility today,” Kevin Reinhart said in a conference call.

Nexen said Monday that there was a bearing failure Saturday morning on one of the gas compressors on the fourth platform at 200,000-barrel-a-day Buzzard, the largest contributing to the Forties crude stream.

The production halt has caused deferrals of several May Forties cargoes earlier this week but so far hasn’t led to a rise in the price of the grade–the main component of global benchmark Brent used to price most of the world’s oil, North Sea traders have said.

But a prolonged halt in Buzzard output is likely to push prices higher, traders said.

-By Konstantin Rozhnov, Dow Jones Newswires

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