The discount on Western Canada Select crude oil to North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures widened on Monday, as Exxon Mobil brought its 264,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Joliet, Illinois offline after a power outage occurred on Sunday.
WCS for October delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $17.35 a barrel below the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, compared with $16.75 on Friday.
* Exxon’s Joliet refinery was built and designed to handle heavier Canadian crude grades delivered by pipeline to the United States.
* Units at the refinery are being stabilized after the plant-wide shutdown, IIR Energy said in a note, adding the refinery is expected to return to normal service by the end of this week.
* Global oil prices settled about 1% higher on Monday as worries about energy supplies mounted following new strikes on Saudi Arabian energy infrastructure and attacks on ships in the Middle East.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)