Canadian heavy crude’s discount to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) widened slightly on Wednesday.
Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for November delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $12.70 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, according to NE2 Canada Inc, compared with Tuesday’s settlement of $12.60 a barrel below the benchmark.
The discount on heavy crude has been inching wider since the start of this month’s trade cycle, retreating from recent five-month highs hit in anticipation of Enbridge Inc bringing its Line 3 replacement project into service.
Linefill on Line 3 started on Friday.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for November delivery settled at 70 cents a barrel below U.S. benchmark crude, widening from Tuesday’s settle of 15 cents per barrel under the WTI benchmark.
Global oil prices dropped nearly 2%, pulling back from multi-year highs, as an unexpected rise in U.S. crude inventories prompted buyers to take a breather after recent torrid gains.