Canadian heavy crude’s discount to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) widened on Tuesday, the first day of the new monthly trade cycle.
Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for July delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, last traded at $14.70 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2 Canada Inc, widening 55 cents from the previous settle.
Tuesday was the first day of the monthly Canadian crude trading window, which runs for roughly two and a half weeks from the first of each month until the day before nominations to ship crude on pipelines are due.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for July delivery traded at $1.70 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2, widening 65 cents from Monday’s settle.
Global oil prices settled higher, with Brent hitting above $71 and trading at its highest since March, on expectations for growing fuel demand during the summer driving season in the United States as OPEC+ agreed to boost output.