U.S. Gulf Coast Oil Premiums Gain as WTI-Brent Spread Widens

U.S. Gulf Coast oil premiums strengthened as the differential between West Texas Intermediate and Brent increased.

The difference between the benchmarks widened 92 cents to $18.53 a barrel. When Brent rises at a faster pace than WTI, as it did today, that typically strengthens the value of U.S. grades competing with foreign oils priced against the European benchmark.

Heavy Louisiana Sweet’s premium added 80 cents to $18.80 a barrel at 1:48 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Light Louisiana Sweet’s increased 5 cents to $19.80.

Poseidon’s premium widened $1.10 to $10.70. Mars Blend added $1.20 to $11.70 a barrel over WTI and Southern Green Canyon increased 90 cents to a premium of $10.50.

The premium for Thunder Horse, a sour crude with lower sulfur content than Mars, Poseidon and Southern Green Canyon, widened $1 to $19.75 above WTI.

The premium for Syncrude added 50 cents to $7.50 a barrel above WTI. The discount for Western Canada Select narrowed 75 cents to $13 a barrel below the U.S. benchmark.

Bakken’s premium to WTI widened 75 cents to $5.75 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