Oil jumped 4% after a week-long selloff, on the back of short covering and U.S. sanctions on some Russian oil shippers but fell for a fourth week in a row. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.99 per barrel today, (+4.1%) to close at $75.89 per barrel. Brent crude futures settled up $US3.19 per barrel (4.1%) to close at US$80.61. Both benchmarks ended the week more than one per cent lower, their fourth straight weekly decline, mostly weighed down by a rise in U.S. crude inventories and sustained record high U.S. production. “You’re getting a natural profit-taking rebound and short covering, to a degree.” – John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC said.
In Canada One Exchange WCS for January delivery settled Friday at US$23.75 below the WTI-CMA. The implied value was US$52.31 per barrel. On Thursday, it settled at US$23.25 below the WTI-CMA for January delivery. The implied value was US$49.88/bbl. Producers in Canada are desperately awaiting line fill on Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion which should begin in January. It is estimated that it will take 11 million barrels to fill the pipeline and that actual shipments (an incremental 500,000 barrels per day) will begin towards the end of Q1 2024