Discount on Western Canada Select Heavy Crude Widens; Wildfires Reduce Canadian Output

The discount on Western Canada Select (WCS) to the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures (WTI) widened on Tuesday but remained in historically tight territory as wildfires continued to disrupt Canadian oil production.

Wildfires burning in Canada’s oil-producing province of Alberta have reduced the country’s daily crude production by about 7%, according to Reuters calculations. No significant oil infrastructure has been damaged, but companies have shut in about 344,000 barrels per day of production and evacuated workers from some sites as a precaution.

* The fires come at a time when Canadian heavy crude has already been trading at a historically tight discount in part due to the opening of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion one year ago, which boosted the country’s oil export capacity.

* Canadian crude has also benefited from U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and other countries, which is boosting demand for non-sanctioned heavy crude producers.

* Globally, oil prices climbed about 2% on Tuesday to a two-week high as persistent geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine and the U.S. and Iran looked set to keep sanctions on both OPEC+ members Russia and Iran in place for longer.

(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Sonali Paul)