Exports of natural gas from one of the North Sea’s key fields have been halted for at least three weeks until early January, after the closure of Britain’s largest oil and gas pipeline, field operator Total said on Wednesday. Swiss-based chemicals company INEOS, which owns the Forties Pipeline System, said on Wednesday that it has not yet taken a decision on repairing a pipeline crack that materialized during a routine inspection of onshore infrastructure last week. The pipeline carries 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Forties crude oil, roughly equivalent to a quarter of the daily output of the entire North Sea basin, and handles a third of Britain’s total offshore gas production. “A number of repair options are being considered and progressed,” INEOS said. “At this stage, it is still too early to say how quickly the repair will take, but it is expected to […]