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Posted December 3, 2018Today in Energy

Pipeline constraints, refinery maintenance push Western Canadian crude oil prices lower ›

Planned maintenance at several large refineries in the Midwest has decreased the volume of crude oil processed in the region, which has resulted in lower prices of Western Canadian Select (WCS), a crude oil typically processed in the Midwest. WCS crude oil is typically priced lower than other crude oils because of differences in crude oil quality, but increasing production of WCS and pipeline capacity constraints in Western Canada have resulted in even lower prices of WCS compared with crude oil benchmarks such as Brent. More

Daily Brent and WCS crude oil prices

Source: EIA, based on Bloomberg L.P.

Data Highlights

WTI crude oil futures price

11/30/2018: $50.93/barrel

up$0.51 from week earlier
down$6.47 from year earlier

Natural gas futures price

11/30/2018: $4.612/MMBtu

up$0.304 from week earlier
up$1.587 from year earlier

Weekly coal production

11/24/2018: 13.924 million tons

down0.678 million tons from week earlier
down0.275 million tons from year earlier

Natural gas inventories

11/23/2018: 3,054 Bcf

down59 Bcf from week earlier
down644 Bcf from year earlier

Crude oil inventories

11/23/2018: 450.5 million barrels

up3.6 million barrels from week earlier
down3.2 million barrels from year earlier