USGC oil flow little-reduced by pipeline snag-Shell

NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters) - Shell RDSA.L is shipping 80,000 barrels a day, or 80 percent, of the oil flow it typically pumps through its Eugene Island pipeline, rerouting the oil as it prepares to a fix a crack in the line.

Shell had been shipping 100,000 bpd through Eugene Island last week, before a pipeline rupture occurred Saturday, leaking 1,500 barrels of crude into the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Shell and Chevron (CVX.N), which both ship crude through Eugene Island, said they have diverted crude to minimize any loss of supplies to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"We have been able to divert 80,000 bpd through other pipeline systems," a Shell spokeswoman said late Thursday.

Chevron's production at its new Tahiti oil platform in the U.S. Gulf hasn't been interrupted by the Eugene Island pipeline outage, a spokeswoman said late Thursday. Chevron had been using the Eugene Island line to ship some of its Tahiti crude.

Crude traders said Friday that the rerouting of Eugene Island's crude flows could change the specifications of crudes that flow ashore in other Gulf Coast region pipelines, possibly affecting their price differentials to light, sweet West Texas Intermediate WTC-, the benchmark U.S. grade.

According to traders, Eugene Island crude's specifications have averaged around 34 degrees API gravity and 1 percent sulfur during the first six months of 2009.

But it wasn't yet clear to cash crude traders which, if any, grades have had specifications altered as a result of the pipeline rerouting.

The Eugene Island pipeline outage has led to a strengthening of U.S. crude grade differentials to WTI this week. BRNV Even sour grades, such as Mars MRS- have been trading at rare premiums to WTI.

Shell has said it's preparing a repair plan for the Eugene Island line, although it has not set a timeline for when the line could be fully restarted.

Efforts to clean up spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico resulting from Eugene Island's leak are continuing and there is little risk the oil will reach shore, according to Shell and the U.S. Coast Guard. (Reporting by Joshua Schneyer and Bruce Nichols)