Production plans and start-ups in Norway, Europe’s largest oil producer, and a restart date for a North Sea pipeline network sent oil prices lower Thursday. “Based on current estimates the company expects to bring the pipeline progressively back to normal rates early in the New Year,” pipeline company Ineos said Thursday . After finding a hairline crack on the network south of Aberdeen, the company closed its Forties pipeline system, which it bought this year from BP, in mid December. The closure of a system that carries about 40 percent of North Sea production, including the blend of oils that make up the global benchmark, Brent, caused a spike in crude oil prices. In surveying […]