Trans Mountain Restarts, Heavy Crude Discount Narrows

Canadian heavy crude’s differential to benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude narrowed on Monday:

* Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for January delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, last traded at $17.50 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, according to NE2 Canada Inc, tightening from $18.70 per barrel below the U.S. crude benchmark on Friday.

* Canadian crude differentials narrowed after the Trans Mountain pipeline restarted on Sunday following a three-week shutdown due to heavy flooding in British Columbia.

* Trans Mountain ships 300,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products to Burnaby, British Columbia, from Alberta, and was shut down as a precaution during a series of storms that battered the province in late November.

* Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for January delivery traded at $3.90 per barrel below the WTI benchmark, narrowing from a discount of $5 a barrel to U.S. crude on Friday.

* Global oil prices climbed by nearly 5% on hopes the Omicron coronavirus variant would have a less damaging economic impact if its symptoms proved mostly mild and as some OPEC member countries signaled confidence in the market.