Heavy discount widens, remains in narrow range

Canadian heavy crude’s discount widened versus the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude on Tuesday, but remained in a narrow range.Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for April delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, was trading at $13.70 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2 Canada Inc, wider than Monday’s settle of $13.45 under.

Broad strength across Canadian grades indicates excess capacity on pipelines, with the upstream turnaround season beginning soon, milder weather and expanded pipeline capacity, said Matt Murphy, upstream analyst at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co

Differentials remain narrow due to planned upstream turnarounds, and could widen into the May and June contracts, said Eight Capital analyst Phil Skolnick, in a note.

Light synthetic crude from the oil sands was trading at $1.80 over WTI, wider than Monday’s settle of $1.50 over.

The global oil benchmark ended slightly lower, under pressure from falling equities, but the losses were contained as top producers considered more output cuts to support prices and the Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates to support the economy.