Western Canadian Select

Western Canadian Select is one of North America’s largest heavy crude oil streams. It is a heavy blended crude oil composed mostly of bitumen blended with sweet synthetic and condensate diluents and 25 existing streams of both conventional and unconventional Alberta heavy crude oils at the large Husky terminal in Hardisty, Alberta. Western Canadian Select—which is the benchmark for emerging heavy, high TAN (acidic) crudes— is one of many petroleum products from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin oil sands. WCS was launched in December 2004 as a new heavy oil stream by Cenovus (then EnCana), Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Suncor (then Petro-Canada) and Talisman Energy Inc.—. Husky Energy has managed WCS terminal operations since 2004 and joined the WCS Founders in 2015.Crude prices are typically quoted at a particular location. Unless otherwise stated, the price of WCS is quoted at Hardisty and the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is quoted at Cushing, Oklahoma. By 18 March 2015 the price of benchmark crude oils, WTI had dropped to $US43.34/bbl. from a high in June 2014 with WTI priced above US$107/bbl and Brent above US$115/bbl. WCS, a bitumen-derived crude, is a heavy crude that is similar to Californian heavy crudes, Mexico's Maya crude or Venezuelan heavy crude oils. In 15 March 2015 the differential between WTI and WCS was US$13.8. Western Canadian Select was among the cheapest crude oils in the world with a price of US$29.54/bbl on 15 March 2015, its lowest price since April 2009. By mid-April 2015 WCS had risen almost fifty percent to trade at $US44.94. By 2 June 2015 the differential between WTI and WCS was US$7.8, the lowest it had ever been. By 12 August 2015 the WCS price dropped to $23.31 and the WTI/WCS differential had risen to $19.75, the lowest price in nine years when BP temporarily shut down its Whiting, Indiana refinery for two weeks, the sixth largest refinery in the United States, to repair the largest crude distillation unit at its Whiting, Indiana refinery. At the same time Enbridge was forced to shut down Line 55 Spearhead pipeline and Line 59 Flanagan South pipeline in Missouri because of a crude oil leak. By 9 September 2015 the price of WCS was US$32.52 and the WTI-WCS differential was differential US$13.35.Bitumen comprises all of Canada’s unconventional oil, and is either upgraded to synthetic light crude, processed into asphalt or blended with other crudes and refined into products such as diesel, gasoline and jet fuel oil.