Canadian heavy crude’s discount to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) widened on Thursday.
Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for June delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, widened to last trade at $13.25 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2 Canada Inc, deepening from Wednesday’s discount of $12.85 per barrel below the benchmark.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for June delivery settled at $1.10 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2. On Wednesday it settled at $1.35 below U.S. futures.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd said on Thursday it has completed a turnaround at the 250,000 barrel per day Horizon upgrader and expects to resume synthetic crude production on May 8.
Global oil prices settled lower, under pressure from rising COVID-19 infections in India and elsewhere although prices retained some support from a report a day earlier that U.S. crude inventories fell more sharply than expected.