North Sea Crude-Forties edges higher

* Forties bids reach dated plus 80 cents
* Traders eye other grades
* Swaps curve flips into contango at front

LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - North Sea Forties crude
differentials for cargoes loading in the middle of September
edged higher on Monday as traders eyed planned maintenance in
the Buzzard oilfield, although near-dated cargoes remained under
pressure.
The market was fairly quiet as many traders were still on
holiday and refiners appeared to be reasonably well covered,
market participants said.
A Shell cargo for Aug. 30-Sept. 1, which had been brought
forward from the September loading programme, was advanced again
to Aug. 29-31, effectively moving it out of the window today.
This was expected to take some pressure off of Forties at
the front end. "Then dated can move up again," a trader said.
With only nine Forties cargoes loading in September due to
the Buzzard maintenance, focus is shifting to other grades,
particularly Ekofisk, which will exceed Forties in volume for
September.
"People expect Ekofisk, Oseberg and Brent to be passed
through the chains," said one market participant, referring to
forward contracts that can be taken out on specific cargoes in
the paper market.
Analysts at Commerzbank noted that although production
outages are typical at this time of year, this year they are
unusually pronounced. As a result, other grades may be sought to
cover shorts, pushing up their premiums to dated Brent.

FORTIES BFO-FOT
* No cargoes traded in the Platts window, but Forties
cargoes loading in the middle of September continued to attract
higher bids than those loading at the start of the month.
* Trafigura and Mercuria were again bidding for the Sept.
12-14 period, getting up to dated plus 80 cents. This was higher
than Friday's bids for the same period, which ended at dated
plus 60 cents. Morgan Stanley and Total also joined the bidding.
* Shell again offered its Sept. 5-7 cargo, opening at dated
plus 15 cents and getting down to dated minus 30 cents at the
close.

SWAPS
* The swaps curve flipped into contango at the front end as
prices strengthened sharply for the next period along:
28-31/8 Oct +127
3-7/9 Oct +180
10-14/9 Nov +125
17-21/9 Nov +80
24-28/9 Nov +50
1-5/10 Nov +30

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(Reporting by Claire Milhench; editing by Jane Baird)