Canadian heavy crude’s differential to benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude narrowed marginally on Wednesday, building on gains from the previous day.
Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for February delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, last traded at $12.10 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, according to NE2 Canada Inc, having settled at $12.15 per barrel below the U.S. crude benchmark on Tuesday.
That was the narrowest WCS differential since early October.
RBN Energy analyst Martin King said stronger demand from refiners in the U.S. Midwest was helping support prices, while cold weather in northern Alberta’s oil sands region had raised concerns there could be production outages.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for February delivery widened 60 cents to $1.50 per barrel below the WTI benchmark.
Global oil prices rose, extending gains even after OPEC+ producers stuck to an agreed output target rise for February and U.S. fuel inventories surged due to sliding demand as COVID-19 cases spiked.