North Sea Crude-Forties eases, strike seen near end

* Forties sold at dated plus 45 cents, slightly weaker
* Forties, Brent loadings down in August, Ekofisk steady
* Norway oil strike nears end as government forces talks
* Strong Urals market helps support market

LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - North Sea crude oil differentials
eased on Friday, weakening after four days of gains as a strike
of Norwegian oil and gas workers appeared to be coming to an end
and as outright values fell on deteriorating economic data.
Tamas Varga, an analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil
Associates, said the Norwegian dispute appeared to be nearing an
end after employers forced the issue on Thursday by calling for
a lockout, which would shut down offshore production, a
situation the government could not allow to continue for long.
"If there is no agreement reached with the unions ... most
of Norway's 1.6 million bpd oil production will be shut in," he
said.
Outright Brent futures prices fell more than 2.5 percent on
Friday as a report showed tepid U.S. jobs growth in June,
reinforcing concerns over the sluggish U.S. economy and weaker
oil demand.
The rising price of Russian Urals crude, which competes with
North Sea grades, helped support Forties, traders said.
Prompt physical swaps responded to the tighter market this
week with the front-month Brent spread rising more than 80
cents. But they fell back on Friday, flattening across the
curve.

FORTIES BFO-FOT
* In the afternoon trading window, Trafigura sold Morgan
Stanley a Forties cargo (F0717) loading July 26-28 at dated
Brent plus 45 cents, down about 5 cents from Thursday's deals.
* Outstanding indications after the window closed included:
Hetco offering a Forties loading July 28-30 at September cash
BFOE plus 70 cents, equivalent to around dated Brent plus 45
cents per barrel; Total bid dated Brent plus 40 cents for a
Forties cargo loading July 26-30.
* Friday's trade and indications were generally a little
weaker than Thursday's trades, including two deals done on a
September BFOE basis at September plus 55 cents and September
plus 60 cents, assessed at the equivalent of around dated Brent
plus 50 cents per barrel.

NORWAY STRIKE
* Norway's government summoned striking offshore workers and
their employers to a meeting on Friday as a pending lockout
threatened to cut off oil and gas exports. The Norwegian
government was widely expected to force the dispute into
compulsory arbitration, ending the near two-week strike that has
hit crude exports and helped push up prices.
* The strike initially shut production at the Oseberg and
Heidrun fields. Oseberg cargoes in July have been delayed,
trading sources said.

AUGUST NORTH SEA PROGRAMMES (BFOE)
* With loading volumes for three of the four streams
announced, BFOE will load at least 677,000 barrels per day in
August, down from 755,000 in July.
* Brent: The Brent stream will see six cargoes of 600,000
barrels load in August, down from seven cargoes in July and
giving an average rate of around 116,000 bpd.
* Forties: The benchmark stream is scheduled to load around
290,000 bpd in August, down from 368,000 originally planned for
July and 380,000 bpd in June. Only 15 cargoes of Forties will
load in August, down from 19 in July.
* Oseberg: Due to the offshore workers' strike in the
Norwegian North Sea, state oil company Statoil will not issue an
export loading schedule for Oseberg August until production
restarts, trading sources have said.
* Norway's Ekofisk stream will load about 252,000 bpd in
August, unchanged from July.

SWAPS
* Swaps eased into a more gentle backwardation, reflecting
perceptions of a better supplied market, as follows:
9-13/7 Sep +48
16-20/7 Sep +28
23-27/7 Sep +6
30-03/8 Sep -2
6-10/8 Sep -9
13-17/8 Sep -16

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(Reporting by Christopher Johnson; editing by Jane Baird)