Heavy Louisiana Sweet Oil Strengthens Against WTI as Brent Gains

Heavy Louisiana Sweet crude oil strengthened against West Texas Intermediate as WTI’s discount to Brent widened.

The gap between WTI and Brent widened 17 cents to $15 a barrel based on September settlement prices in New York. When Brent gains versus WTI, it typically strengthens the value of U.S. grades that compete with foreign oils priced against the European benchmark.

Heavy Louisiana Sweet added 40 cents to $15.40 over WTI at 2:08 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gain was the first in four days. Light Louisiana Sweet’s premium to WTI was unchanged at $16 a barrel.

Poseidon’s premium decreased 60 cents to $9.20 a barrel. Southern Green Canyon lost $1.30 to $8 over WTI. Mars Blend weakened 45 cents to $10 a barrel over the U.S. benchmark.

The premium for Thunder Horse, a sour crude with lower sulfur content than Mars, Poseidon and Southern Green Canyon, decreased $1.65 to $12.50.

Syncrude’s premium was steady at $3 over WTI. Syncrude is a synthetic oil upgraded from tarlike bitumen in Alberta into refinery-ready crude.

Western Canada Select’s discount narrowed $2.55 to $14 below WTI.

Bakken oil’s discount widened 75 cents to $1.25.

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