BP is currently in talks with Ineos AG regarding the potential sale of the Forties pipeline, which currently transports around 450,000 bbl/d. The whole pipeline system is completely controlled by BP but the company is trying to bring down its debt and might sell the asset.
The Forties pipeline is the North Sea largest and oldest pipeline, transporting oil from the Unity offshore platform to the onshore terminal at Cruden Bay (Aberdeen), down to the Kinneil terminal near Grangemouth oil refinery (belonging to Ineos). The pipeline carries around 40% of all UK oil production.
It was originally built to transport 1 mb/d from the Forties field in the 1970s. The Forties field has been sold by BP to Apache in 2003 and the Grangemouth refinery to Ineos in 2005. Grangemouth is currently Ineos' largest processing facility by volume.
Ineos is currently expanding its portfolio in the UK and bought notably shale gas assets from Engie earlier this year. The transaction, whose amount was not disclosed, included minority interests in 15 licences, 7 of which Ineos holds an existing interest in. The remaining 8 licences complemented Ineos’ existing licence interests in Yorkshire, Cheshire and the East Midlands. Three of the licences are operated by Ineos, eight by IGas Energy and four by Cuadrilla. They increase the total acreage held by Ineos under licence to more than 1.2 million acres (nearly 4,900 km²).