North Sea oil output will fall by 8.6% in March from a year earlier, illustrating the gradual drop in supply from the home of the Brent benchmark used to value two thirds of the world's oil.
Supply of nine North Sea crudes will average 2.033 million barrels per day, down from 2.225 million bpd a year earlier, data compiled by Reuters showed.
Month on month, supply will rise 1% from 2.012 in February.
North Sea traders and analysts said the small increase in output was unlikely to dampen sentiment in the market.
Prices of West African and North Sea crudes have been rising partly due to robust demand.
"We're seeing quite a strong physical crude market at the moment," said David Wech, analyst at JBC Energy in Vienna.
"Strong prices in Europe are partly a reflection of declining production and tight availabilities, so a slight monthly uptick will not do much to change that."
Output of Forties, the crude which normally sets the dated Brent benchmark, is set to be slightly lower, while daily supply of all four benchmark crudes – Forties, Brent, Oseberg and Ekofisk – will fall 90,000 bpd or 7.4%.
The slight rise in supply of North Sea oil in March from February is driven by higher volumes of Norwegian crudes Statfjord and Gullfaks, and an increase in supply of Denmark's DUC crude.
Gullfaks output is set to rebound after pumping less crude than planned this month. Norway's Statoil has closed 50 wells at the Gullfaks field over safety concerns.
North Sea oil supply is generally believed to be past its peak as the larger and easier-to-access deposits are pumped out.
Last March, the same nine North Sea crude streams were expected to load 2.225 million bpd, figures compiled by Reuters at the time showed.
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