Sweet Louisiana Oils Strengthen as Brent-WTI Margin Widens

Sweet Louisiana oil premiums strengthened as West Texas Intermediate’s discount to Brent oil widened.

The gap between WTI and Brent increased 49 cents to $15.41 a barrel based on September settlement prices. 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 increased $1 to $16.50 a barrel over WTI at 4:06 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Light Louisiana Sweet’s premium to the U.S. benchmark added 50 cents to $17.50.

Poseidon’s premium gained 25 cents to $9.25 a barrel. Southern Green Canyon rose 50 cents to $9 over WTI. Mars Blend increased 75 cents to $10.25 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 45 cents to $11.30.

Bakken oil’s discount to WTI was unchanged at $3 a barrel. Western Canada Select’s discount widened $5 to $19 below WTI.

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

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