Depressed WCS prices pave the road for Chinese imports.

摘要

With Western Canadian Select (WCS) currently trading at a $50/bbl discount to WTI-and this discount expected to stay in place in the near term due to the lack of takeaway capacity out of Alberta-China has turned to Canada to replace purchases of dwindling Venezuelan heavy Merey crude. Last month China imported 1.58MM bbl (53K b/d) of Canadian crude, up from 1.05MM bbl (35K b/d) in April, with the crude being delivered to ports that service Chinese teapots. This month, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) has chartered a tanker to load Canadian oil from Vancouver.