Canadian heavy crude’s differential to benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude narrowed slightly on Monday.
Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for January delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, last traded at $16.55 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, according to NE2 Canada Inc, having settled at $16.70 per barrel below the U.S. crude benchmark on Friday.
Strong throughput on the Enbridge Mainline system is helping offset reduced capacity on the Trans Mountain pipeline, which was shut down for three weeks because of storms in British Columbia, according to an industry source.
Suncor Energy said on Monday it will ramp up production at its Fort Hills oil sands project in late December. That will increase Fort Hills production from around 157,000 barrels per day to roughly 184,000 bpd.
Global oil futures eased on worries that rising coronavirus cases around the world could reduce crude demand as new doubts emerged about the effectiveness of vaccines against the Omicron variant.