BP in discussions with Ineos to sell North Sea’s largest pipeline

BP is in talks with chemicals giant Ineos to sell the North Sea’s largest and oldest oil pipeline, which is used to transport the crude that prices the global Brent benchmark.

The pipeline system is around 100 miles long. It transports oil from the unmanned offshore Unity platform in the North Sea to the onshore terminal at Cruden Bay near Aberdeen. From here 130 miles of onshore pipes carry the oil to the Kinneil terminal near Ineos’s Grangemouth oil refinery.

According to media reports, the companies both confirmed the talks, which first emerged this time last year but were believed to have collapsed last summer amid a disagreement over how to price the assets.