Heavy Oil Discount Narrows as Wildfire Concerns Persist

* WCS for June delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, traded at $12.00 a barrel below WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, having settled at $12.50 a barrel below the benchmark on Tuesday.

* The discount narrowed as a wildfire continued to threaten the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. Officials said favourable winds on Wednesday were expected to push it further away from the city.

* There were no reports of interruptions to oil sands operations. In 2016, a wildfire destroyed large parts of Fort McMurray and forced more than a million barrels per day (bpd) of production to shut in.

* Global oil prices rose nearly 1% from a two-month low in the prior session as the market balanced bullish U.S. economic and crude storage data against the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) forecast for weaker global oil demand growth.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)