Canadian heavy crude’s discount widened modestly versus the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil on Thursday, as data showed western Canadian crude inventories fell in March and investors awaited details on a massive OPEC supply-cut agreement.
Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for May delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, traded at $19.25 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2 Canada Inc, wider than Wednesday’s settle of $19 under.
Brent LCOc1 futures fell 19 cents to $32.65 a barrel by 1:42 p.m. EDT (1742 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 fell 22 cents to $24.89 a barrel. O/R
Western Canadian oil inventories stood at 30.3 million barrels as of March 27, down 638,000 barrels from March 6, according to Genscape.
“Extreme cold in Alberta hampered production in the first quarter of the year which contributed to inventory draws,” Genscape analyst Dylan White said.
Canadian oil producers have shut-in at least 325,000 barrels per day of production due to low prices and weak demand and could curtail more than 1.1 million bpd in the second quarter, according to consultancy Rystad Energy.
Canada’s main oil producing province of Alberta has not been asked by OPEC to make further output cuts beyond existing curtailments, Premier Jason Kenney said.