Louisiana Sweet Oils Weaken as Brent-WTI Differential Narrows

Gulf Coast oil grades weakened as the discount for West Texas Intermediate oil versus Brent crude narrowed.

The discount for February West Texas Intermediate oil versus Brent narrowed 10 cents to $20.09 a barrel in New York. When Brent loses versus WTI, it typically weakens the value of U.S. grades that compete with foreign oils priced against the European benchmark.

Heavy Louisiana Sweet’s premium to benchmark West Texas Intermediate narrowed $2.45 to $18.55 a barrel at 2 p.m. New York time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Light Louisiana Sweet lost $1.90 to $19.60 a barrel over WTI.

The premium for Mars Blend to WTI narrowed 20 cents to $14.30 a barrel. Southern Green Canyon added $2 to $14.50 a barrel over WTI.

Thunder Horse dropped $1.50 to a $16.50-a-barrel premium to the U.S. benchmark. Poseidon’s premium to WTI narrowed 30 cents to $14.45 a barrel.

The discount for West Texas Sour to WTI widened 50 cents to $17 a barrel.

Canadian crudes were unchanged, with Western Canada Select at a $34-a-barrel discount to WTI and Syncrude holding at 50 cents above the benchmark.

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