Canadian heavy crude’s discount to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) widened on Wednesday.
Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for November delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $14.75 per barrel below the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark, according to NE2 Canada Inc, widening further from Tuesday’s settlement of $14.30 per barrel under the benchmark.
The discount on Canadian heavy crude has deepened steadily since the start of the month, after hitting its narrowest level in five months in late September in anticipation of Enbridge Inc bringing its Line 3 replacement project into service.
Linefill on the Line 3 pipeline started on Oct. 1.
An industry source said strong production from the oil sands was contributing to the wider differentials.
Even so, strong benchmark U.S. crude prices, which Canadian barrels trade are discounted against, are making the outright price of WCS relatively expensive at more than $65 a barrel.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for November delivery settled at $1.35 a barrel below U.S. benchmark crude, little changed from the previous day.
Global oil prices eased on worries that crude demand growth would slow, which ate into recent gains that had brought prices to multi-year highs in recent sessions.