Canadian heavy crude’s differential to benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude tightened on Tuesday.
Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for January delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, last traded at $16.75 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, according to NE2 Canada Inc, having settled at $17.60 per barrel below the U.S. crude benchmark on Monday.
It was the second straight day of narrower Canadian crude differentials after the Trans Mountain pipeline restarted on Sunday following a three-week shutdown due to heavy flooding in British Columbia.
Trans Mountain ships 300,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products to Burnaby, British Columbia, from Alberta, and was shut down as a precaution during a series of storms in late November.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for January delivery traded at $3.50 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, narrowing from a discount of $3.90 a barrel to U.S. crude on Friday.
Global oil prices climbed by more than 3%, extending the previous day’s rebound of almost 5% as concerns eased further about the impact on global fuel demand of the Omicron coronavirus variant.