Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Daily shipments of North Sea Brent crude, part of the price benchmark for almost two-thirds of the world's oil, will fall by about 15 percent in March.

Tankers are set to load 157,346 barrels a day of Brent crude in March, down from 184,552 barrels a day scheduled for February, according to the loading program of field operator Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company.

A total of 4.88 million barrels will be shipped next month, compared with 5.35 million barrels in February.

Brent is one of the four North Sea oil varieties used to price crude from the Middle East, Africa and Russia. The other grades are Forties, produced by BP Plc, Norsk Hydro ASA's Oseberg blend and ConocoPhillips's Ekofisk.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in London at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 8, 2008 03:55 EST