Heavy oil discount narrows

The discount on Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude versus the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) tightened for a second day on Friday:

WCS for July delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, traded at $12.95 a barrel below WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, having settled at $13.05 a barrel under the benchmark on Thursday.

Last month’s start-up of the 590,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Trans Mountain pipeline is helping support Canadian crude prices by opening up more access to markets on the U.S. west coast and Asia.

Global oil prices edged down and posted a third straight weekly loss as investors weighed OPEC+ reassurances against the latest U.S. jobs data that lowered expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates soon.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Richard Chang)