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The discount on Western Canada Select crude oil to North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures narrowed on Thursday. WCS for February delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $14.10 a barrel below the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, compared with $14.30 a barrel on Wednesday. The discount on Canadian heavy crude remains more than $1 wider than it was last month. The price for Canadian heavy crude grades has fallen in the wake of heightened market [Read more]

Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez said on Thursday that she was submitting a proposal to reform the country's hydrocarbon law, as investors in the U.S. push for easier access to the South American country's oil industry. Rodriguez said the reforms would "allow these investment flows to be incorporated into new fields, fields where no investment has ever been made and into fields where there is no infrastructure." Rodriguez said funds from oil would go to workers and public [Read more]

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Thursday the U.S. is getting a 30% higher price for Venezuelan crude oil than Venezuela got before U.S. special forces captured President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month. "We're getting about a 30% higher realized price when we sell the same barrel of oil than they sold the same barrel of oil three weeks ago," Wright said at a U.S. Energy Association event. Wright not detail the prices of the oil sales before and after the capture of Maduro. The [Read more]

Devon Energy and Coterra Energy are exploring a potential merger, in a deal that could create one of the largest independent U.S. shale producers, people familiar with the matter said. A possible combination, which would rank among the largest between U.S. energy producers in recent years, comes as U.S. crude prices remain pressured by a near-term global oil glut and the prospect of higher supplies entering the market in coming years from Venezuela. The two companies are said to be in [Read more]