The discount on Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude versus the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was steady on the day on Tuesday, ending three consecutive days of narrowing:
* WCS for August delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $13.60 a barrel below WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, having also closed at $13.60 a barrel below WTI on Monday.
* Major refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast appeared to sustain minimal impact after Hurricane Beryl weakened into a tropical storm, with some of those refineries consuming WCS.
* In Canada, a fire restriction is in effect for both the High Level and entire Fort McMurray Forest Area, Alberta’s wildfire agency said on Tuesday.
* Last week, Suncor, Canada’s second-largest oil company, temporarily curtailed some production and evacuated non-essential workers from its 215,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Firebag site because of a fire roughly eight kilometres (5 miles) away.
* In Ontario, Suncor shut down a unit at its 85,000 barrels-per-day Sarnia refinery for maintenance on Tuesday.
* Global oil prices eased more than 1% on Tuesday after traders learned that prolonged supply disruptions from Hurricane Beryl were unlikely after a U.S. oil-producing hub in Texas suffered less storm damage than feared.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)