The amount of crude oil due to be pumped from fields in the North Sea is set to fall nearly 15% in May compared to the previous month, as maintenance season takes large swathes of production out of the market. The Oseberg field will load only two cargoes this month, according to provisional loading programs seen by The Wall Street Journal, compared with six last month. “I think it’s just normal field maintenance [and] I would say it was planned. Whether or not the market knew about it until very recently is another matter,” said Steve Sawyer, an oil consultant at FACTS Global Energy. The total number of barrels to be loaded in May will be 24 million, down 14.9% from 28.2 million the month before. A North Sea oil trader said that the “large maintenance” was likely priced in, and that the Oseberg field is […]