Heavy Oil Discount Narrows Within Recent Range

The discount on Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude versus the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) tightened slightly on Friday.

WCS for March delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $19.25 a barrel under WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, having closed at $19.55 per barrel below the U.S. benchmark on Thursday.

Canadian heavy crude differentials have been trading in a range around $19 a barrel under U.S. crude all month, following the shutdown of BP’s 435,000 barrel-per-day Whiting, Indiana, refinery and fresh delays to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

Robust oil sands supply and apportionment on export pipelines is also putting pressure on Canadian barrels.

Enbridge Inc said on Friday that growing Canadian oil production means shipper volumes may still be rationed on its Mainline pipeline system even once the 590,000 bpd Trans Mountain expansion is operating.

Global oil prices settled higher, up about 6% on a week-on-week basis, as worries about supply from the Middle East mounted and as refining outages tightened refined products markets.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)