Western Canada Select Heavy Crude Discount Widens

WCS for May delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $9.30 a barrel under WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, after having settled at $9.10 under the U.S. benchmark on Monday.

* The WCS discount briefly widened last week in the immediate aftermath of an oil spill in North Dakota, which caused Keystone operator South Bow to temporarily shut down the 4,327-km (2,689) pipeline from Canada to the U.S.

* But it has since returned to historically tight conditions brought about by increased demand for heavy crude due to U.S. sanctions on heavy crude-producing countries such as Venezuela, as well as lower heavy crude exports from Mexico.

* Global oil prices were little changed on Tuesday as investors digested the latest headlines on U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs and tried to figure how much the U.S.-China trade war could reduce global economic growth and oil demand.

(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)