Heavy oil discount narrows as wildfire concerns persist

The discount on Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude versus the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) tightened on Wednesday:

* WCS for June delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, traded at $12.00 a barrel below WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, having settled at $12.50 a barrel below the benchmark on Tuesday.

* The discount narrowed as a wildfire continued to threaten the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. Officials said favourable winds on Wednesday were expected to push it further away from the city.

* There were no reports of interruptions to oil sands operations. In 2016, a wildfire destroyed large parts of Fort McMurray and forced more than a million barrels per day (bpd) of production to shut in.

* Global oil prices rose nearly 1% from a two-month low in the prior session as the market balanced bullish U.S. economic and crude storage data against the International Energy Agency's (IEA) forecast for weaker global oil demand growth.