Cenovus sees crude differentials to ease out by mid-2019

Canadian oil and gas producer Cenovus Energy Inc expects the spread between Western Canadian Select (WCS) and U.S. benchmark Crude (WTI) to "significantly" ease out by mid 2019, Chief Executive Officer Alex Pourbaix said on a call.

Cenovus also expects crude by rail to reach 300,000 barrels per day by the end of this year, the company said on a post-earnings call with analysts on Wednesday.

Last month, the company signed three-year deals with Canada's two major railways to transport roughly 100,000 barrels per day from Northern Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast starting in the fourth quarter.

(Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru)