Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Daily shipments of North Sea Brent crude, part of the price benchmark for almost two-thirds of the world's oil, will drop by about 21 percent in December.

Tankers are set to load 161,677 barrels a day of Brent crude in December, down from 204,500 barrels a day scheduled for November, according to the loading program of field operator Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company. A total of 5.01 million barrels will be shipped next month, compared with 6.14 million barrels in November.

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: November 9, 2007 05:25 EST