Heavy sour Canadian crude is pooling in the US midcontinent, as refnery mainte- nance dents demand and more Mideast Gulf supply reaches the Gulf coast. Crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, have risen to 53mn bl, more than 20mn bl above the seasonal average. But the overhang has had little impact on the value of US benchmark WTI, which prices at Cushing, relative to Atlantic basin marker North Sea Dated. WTI has been at a discount of just over $2/bl to North Sea Dated since late August, leading many to conclude that heavy crudes — which cannot be delivered into the Nymex WTI futures contract — are behind much of the surplus.
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