Houston — Oil prices slipped on Tuesday, retreating after an early surge to a two-year high when the United Kingdom’s biggest North Sea oil pipeline was shut, crimping the flow of global benchmark Brent crude. The Forties pipeline, which was scheduled to pump 406,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December, was shut on Monday after cracks were found in what traders believe is the first unplanned outage for some years. That pushed Brent prices higher on Monday, and the rally continued into Tuesday morning before prices retreated during US trading hours. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down 67c at $64.02 at 4.46pm GMT. Earlier in the session, Brent rose above $65 a barrel for the first time since June 2015. US crude was at $57.47, down 51c. Forties is important for the global oil market because the crude it carries normally sets the price of dated Brent, a benchmark used to price physical crude around the world and which underpins Brent futures. The WTI-Brent spread widened out to as...
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