In recent weeks, the price spread in the Gulf Coast region for Western Canadian Select (WCS) and Access Western Blend (AWB), two grades of Canadian heavy crude oil that are actively traded for physical delivery to refiners and exporters in the Gulf Coast region, have been hovering at their narrowest values since June 2023 and near their best values since 2018/19. Based on data collected in RBN’s TradeView report, these two grades of heavy oil are priced for physical delivery as a differential to the NYMEX-CME Calendar Month Average (CMA) crude oil price and have been holding at a discount tighter than $(4)/bbl to $(5)/bbl under CMA for several weeks with another notable narrowing taking place in the past week (red and blue lines in chart below and black dashed line for comparison).
Featured Articles
- Analyst Insight
Tariffs, Tariffs Toil and Trouble – Tight Gulf Coast Cauldron Keeps Canadian Crude on the Boil
Canadian crude in the Gulf Coast continues to fetch its tightest price differentials in years as tariff threats and tight supplies keep the oil market on the boil.
- Analyst Insight
Cool to Be a Canuck — Canadian Heavy Oil in the Gulf Coast Sustains Tight Price Differentials
The price differential for Canadian heavy oil supplies in the Gulf Coast in the past few months has been running at its narrowest level in the past five years.
- Blog
Tighten Up - The Stars Align and the Western Canadian Heavy/WTI Differential Narrows
Any number of things can impact the price of specific types of crude oil at various locations — supply interruptions, takeaway constraints and refinery outages, to name just a few. Every so often, the stars align and just about all those factors narrow the differential between, say, Western Canadian Select (WCS) and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at the U.S. Gulf Coast to near-record levels. Well, that’s happening now, for the first time in five years. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the shockingly small WCS/WTI differential and what’s driving it.
