The discount on Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude versus the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded around $16 on Monday, the second day of the new monthly trade cycle.
* WCS for April delivery in Hardisty, Alberta began trading at $16.50 a barrel under WTI before dropping to $16.15, according to brokerage CalRock. WCS had traded between $15 and $16.35 per barrel below the U.S. benchmark on Friday.
* Discounts on Canadian oil look to shrink into single digits in the second quarter due to seasonal high demand and seasonal low supply, Eight Capital analysts said in a note.
* Canadian heavy crude differentials narrowed last month after an outage at BP’s 435,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery and delays to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) project.
* Oil producer MEG Energy said on Friday line fill on Canada’s long-delayed Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion would start from April. The Canadian government-owned pipeline corporation has called for 2.1 million barrels in April and the same amount of oil in May, MEG’s CEO said.
* Global oil futures settled slightly lower as demand headwinds counterbalanced a widely expected extension of voluntary output cuts through the middle of the year by the OPEC+ producer group.
* The Canada Energy Regulator said it has approved a toll settlement between pipeline operator Enbridge and shippers for moving oil along the Canadian mainline.
(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)