Canadian heavy crude’s discount to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) narrowed on Wednesday due to rising demand and tight stocks:
Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for August delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, traded at $13.30 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, according to NE2 Canada Inc, narrower than Tuesday’s settle of $13.55 a barrel under the benchmark.
WCS is seeing the highest outright prices in seven years, said Iqbal Gill, head of hydrocarbon supply at BarrelTEX. Refinery runs are rising and Alberta’s crude inventories to start summer are down 500,000 barrels compared to spring, due to increased exports, he said.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for August delivery traded at $1.70 a barrel below U.S. futures, compared with $1.50 under, on Wednesday.
Global oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel in another seesaw trading session, as investors feared this week’s collapse in OPEC+ talks could mean more supply, not less, is on the way.