Canadian heavy crude’s differential to benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude narrowed on Wednesday.
Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for March delivery in Hardisty, Alberta last traded at $13.25 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, according to NE2 Canada Inc, 60 cents narrower than the previous day’s settle.
Some larger refiners who had waited until late in the trade cycle were among the buyers, one market source said. Friday is the last day of this month’s trading window, in which the bulk of Canadian crude market activity takes place.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands dipped 10 cents to last trade at $1.00 per barrel over WTI.
Oil prices rallied after U.S. crude inventories dropped by nearly 5 million barrels and fuel demand rose to an all-time high, underscoring the market’s ongoing tightness.