CANADA-CRUDE-Western Canada Select trading at steepest discounts since March

Dec 4 (Reuters) - The discount on Western Canada Select to North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 narrowed on Thursday but remains wider than it has been since March.

WCS for January delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $12.85 a barrel below the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, compared to $13 on Wednesday.

After spending much of the year at historically tight levels, in large part due to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion which has given Canadian oil producers additional export capacity, the WCS discount has recently widened on increasing Canadian oil production.

• The oil-producing province of Alberta set a production record in 2024, averaging 3.98 million bpd, and is so far tracking 3.8% higher for the first 10 months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, according to government statistics.

• Globally, oil prices settled up on Thursday on investors' expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, while stalled Ukraine peace talks tempered expectations of a deal restoring Russian oil flows.