The discount on Canadian heavy crude widened versus U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude on Friday as traders continued to focus on record stockpiles.
Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for January delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, traded at $22 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2 Canada Inc, near the widest level since early December 2018. WCS settled at $21.50 below futures on Thursday.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands traded $2.95 below WTI, steady compared with Thursday’s settle of $2.95 below.
Light synthetic crude came under pressure on news that Canada’s Syncrude oil sands facility had ramped up production after a disruption last week because of operational problems, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Western Canadian oil stocks had climbed to a record-high 39 million barrels as of Nov. 29 due to a temporary outage of the Keystone oil pipeline and a strike by Canadian National Railway Co workers.
Benchmark oil prices rose on Friday to their highest in nearly three months as investors cheered progress in resolving the U.S.-China trade dispute and a decisive general election result in Britain.