The discount on Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude versus the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) tightened on Thursday:
* WCS for September delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $15.05 a barrel below WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, having started trading at $15.20 a barrel under the U.S. benchmark.
* Canadian heavy crude prices have come under pressure in recent weeks due to a number of factors including U.S. refinery outages and weak pricing on the U.S. Gulf Coast, analysts said.
* Major oil producers Cenovus Energy and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd both said on Thursday earnings calls the threat of wildfires impacting production in the oil sands region is abating.
* About 19 Aframax ships loaded around 330,000 barrels of crude oil per day in July at Canada’s West Coast in the second full month of operations on the newly expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, slightly lower than June, vessel-tracking data showed.
* Global oil prices settled more than $1 lower as global supply seemed largely unaffected by worries of a wider Middle East crisis after the killing of a Hamas leader in Iran, and as investors refocused on demand concerns.
(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; editing by Alan Barona)