Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- ConocoPhillips plans to start two North Sea oil fields this weekend after a three-week maintenance shutdown. The fields feed into the benchmark Ekofisk blend.

The Eldfisk and Embla fields, in the Greater Ekofisk Area of the North Sea, were shut Sept. 22. for routine repairs. The fields are ``most likely'' to resume production in the next two days, according to a statement by ConocoPhillips spokesman Ingvar Solberg.

Eldfisk and Embla are two of four fields in the Ekofisk area. The other two, Ekofisk and Tor, continued pumping oil during the repairs. ConocoPhillips expected the maintenance to reduce production by about 62,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, the company said previously.

Ekofisk blend is one of the four North Sea grades that determine the Dated Brent benchmark, used to price two-thirds of the world's oil. Tankers are set to load 465,000 barrels a day of Ekofisk crude in November, up from 440,323 barrels a day in October, loading schedules show.

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

Last Updated: October 12, 2007 10:18 EDT