BP Plc shut a pipeline that carries 40 percent of the oil produced in the UK because of a strike at a refinery in Scotland that supplies power to the system.

"The pipeline was completely shut before 6am this morning (Sunday)," Richard Grant, a BP spokesman, said in a phone interview with Bloomberg News yesterday. It would take a "few days" to get the entire system back on line, Grant said.

Crude oil has surged on the prospect of the pipeline closing. The Forties Pipeline System ships about 700,000 barrels a day from more than 50 fields in the North Sea, which will be forced to close as well. Workers at the Ineos Group Holdings Plc's Grangemouth refinery started a two-day strike yesterday morning in a dispute over pensions.

"About 1,100 workers at the Grangemouth have gone on strike," Pauline Doyle, a union spokeswoman, said by phone.

The shutdown of the 200,000 barrel-a-day refinery has been completed and a few hundred workers remain at the plant for safety reasons, she said. The impact of the strike, may be felt for "weeks," she added.

Grangemouth supplies about 95 percent of the fuel used in Scotland's central belt, including its capital, Edinburgh, and biggest city, Glasgow.

The Grangemouth plant has refined crude for around 80 years and the last time the entire facility was completely shut down was during World War II, according to Ineos, which bought the plant from BP in 2005.

Ineos spokesman Richard Longden confirmed the strike was underway.

"There are no talks planned for now," Longden said over the phone. "We're open to find a solution to this."

The refinery will restart its operations tomorrow at 7:00am "plant by plant and step by step" with full capacity expected within two to three weeks, he said.

Units which are crucial to restart the flow from the Forties pipeline will have "priority," Longden said.