WCS to arrive on the global stage

New pipeline capacity may transform the role of Canada’s key heavy sour crude and its price after a few false dawns

Canada’s benchmark heavy sour crude, Western Canadian Select (WCS), stands ready to play a bigger role in the global oil market. The North American grade—based on more than 400,000bl/d produced by four oil sands producers—is a marker for other Canadian heavy blends and is generally exported to the US, where it is refined in the US Midwest and Gulf Coast. Some 20 years after its launch, this cheap heavy crude may finally start to gain a newfound appreciation—and fewer constraints—once the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project comes online at some point in 2024. “The twists and turns in the pricing saga of Western Canada’s heavy crude oil marker, WCS, are seemingly endless,” Martin King, m