Discount on Western Canada Select Unchanged

WCS for July delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $9.10 a barrel under the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, flat on Wednesday’s close.

The discount had narrowed earlier in the week as wildfires burning in Canada’s oil-producing province of Alberta prompted several oil sands operations to evacuate workers as a precaution. About 344,000 barrels per day of production, or about 7% of Canada’s average daily crude production, was disrupted as a result.

But Canada’s largest crude producer, Canadian Natural Resources, has since restarted operations at its Jackfish 1 site and has said it anticipates the site will be back up to full production of about 36,500 bpd by Friday.

Analysts said they expect Cenovus Energy’s Christina Lake oil sands site to also resume full operations soon. The company shut in about 238,000 barrels of production on May 29, due to wildfire activity in northern Alberta.

Global oil prices settled higher on Thursday, recovering from the previous day’s drop, on news that the U.S. and China agreed to more trade talks following a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)