Western Canada Select (WCS) crude’s discount to the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) narrowed marginally on Wednesday.
WCS for March delivery in Hardisty, Alberta traded between $18.75 and $18.20 a barrel under WTI, according to brokerage CalRock. On Tuesday WCS traded between $18.80 and $18.50 a barrel under the U.S. benchmark.
The tightening came as Enbridge Inc said apportionment on its Mainline system in March fell to 2% on both light and heavy crude lines, down from 19% and 17% respectively in February.
Lower apportionment on pipelines means there is less crude getting bottlenecked in Alberta, and reflects how Canadian oil flows are returning to normal levels following TC Energy’s Keystone pipeline leak in December.
TC Energy said on Tuesday 622,000 barrel-per-day Keystone is flowing at 96% capacity while investigations into the root cause of the leak continued.
Global oil futures were flat to lower as the U.S. dollar strengthened and investors worried that rising interest rates would slow the economy and cut fuel demand.