Light Louisiana Sweet Weakens to Three-Year Low Against Brent

Light Louisiana Sweet’s discount to Brent oil widened to the largest margin since December 2008 as the first shipments of similar low-sulfur grades may begin arriving in Texas via the Seaway pipeline this month.

Transit time on Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD) and Enbridge Inc. (ENB)’s reversed Seaway pipeline is about 12 days, Rick Rainey, a Houston-based spokesman, said yesterday. The 150,000- barrel-a-day line will moving oil from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Texas refineries May 17, the companies said in a filing.

Light Louisiana Sweet’s discount to Brent, the European benchmark, widened $1.54 to $5.33 a barrel at 2:14 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Louisiana grade began trading at a discount to Brent this month for the first time since February. LLS’s premium to West Texas Intermediate narrowed 25 cents to $12.75 a barrel.

Heavy Louisiana Sweet’s premium to WTI decreased 75 cents to $14. Mars Blend’s narrowed 25 cents to $10.25 a barrel and Poseidon’s lost 50 cents to $9. Southern Green Canyon was unchanged at a premium of $9.50.

Thunder Horse, a sour crude with lower sulfur content than Mars, Poseidon and Southern Green Canyon, increased 50 cents against WTI to a premium of $13.50.

Western Canada Select’s discount to WTI narrowed $1 to $16.75 a barrel. Syncrude’s premium added 5 cents to $2.10.

Bakken oil’s discount to the U.S. benchmark widened 10 cents to $2 a barrel.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Clark in New York at aclark27@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net