The discount on Western Canada Select (WCS) to the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures (WTI) widened on Wednesday, as some oil sands production that had been temporarily halted this week due to the threat of nearby wildfires was restarted.
WCS for July delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $9.10 a barrel under the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, after having settled at $9 under the U.S. benchmark on Tuesday.
The discount had narrowed earlier in the week as wildfires burning in Canada’s oil-producing province of Alberta prompted several oil sands operations to evacuate workers as a precaution. About 344,000 barrels per day of production, or about 7% of Canada’s average daily crude production, was disrupted as a result.
But Canada’s largest crude producer, Canadian Natural Resources, has since restarted operations at its Jackfish 1 site and has said it anticipates the site will be back up to full production of approximately 36,500 bpd by Friday.
The 238,000 bpd of production that is currently shut-in at Cenovus Energy’s Christina Lake oil sands site will also likely resume soon as the risk to oil sands infrastructure in the region appears to have lessened, said RBN Energy analyst Martin King.
Cenovus did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Wednesday.
The fact the discount on Canadian heavy crude has widened suggests the market is already looking past the wildfire shut-ins, King added. He said when production disruptions are short-lived, the market can draw barrels out of storage, meaning any impact on WCS pricing is limited.
“It’s not like there was ever any kind of real short-term threat to supplies,” King said.
* Globally, oil prices settled down just over 1% on Wednesday after U.S. data showed a surprisingly large build in gasoline and diesel inventories, swelling fuel supplies with OPEC+ planning more output and trade tensions clouding the energy demand outlook.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Alan Barona)