The discount of Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude to the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures (WTI) widened on Tuesday, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada took effect.
* WCS for April delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $13.70 a barrel under WTI, its widest discount since February 6, according to brokerage CalRock. WCS for April delivery ended at a $13.60 discount on Monday.
* Trump on Tuesday applied 25% tariffs to most Canadian goods and 10% to energy products.
* Canada exports approximately 4 million barrels of oil per day, about 90 per cent of its total crude exports, to the United States.
* The threat of U.S. tariffs has been slowly creeping into the price of Canadian heavy crude over the last month, said Rory Johnston, energy analyst and founder of the Commodity Context newsletter. “Realistically, I think the question moves now to how long this lasts and where we go from here,” he said.
* If tariffs continue for any sustained period of time, they will have a negative effect on investment appetite in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, Johnston said.
* Global oil prices swooned on Tuesday and settled close to multi-month lows after reports of OPEC+ plans to proceed with output increases in April as well as news of U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, and Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Alan Barona)