Western Canadian Select

Western Canadian Select (WCS) is a heavy sour blend of crude oil^[1] that is one of North America's largest heavy crude oil streams^[2] and, historically, its cheapest.^[3] It was established in December 2004 as a new heavy oil stream by EnCana (now Cenovus), Canadian Natural Resources, Petro-Canada (now Suncor) and Talisman Energy (now Repsol Oil & Gas Canada).^[4] It is composed mostly of bitumen blended with sweet synthetic and condensate diluents and 21^[5] existing streams of both conventional and unconventional^[5][6] Alberta heavy crude oils at the large Husky Midstream General Partnership terminal in Hardisty, Alberta.^[7] Western Canadian Select—the benchmark for heavy, acidic (TAN <1.1) crudes^[8][9]—is one of many petroleum products from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin oil sands. Calgary-based Husky Energy, now a subsidiary of Cenovus, had joined the initial four founders in 2015.^{[7][8][10][11][12][13]}

Western Canadian Select (WCS) is the benchmark price for Canadian crude blends.^[14] The price of other Canadian crude blends produced locally are also based on the price of the benchmark.

During the COVID-19 pandemic many oil benchmarks around the world fell to record lows, with WCS dropping to $3.81 U.S. dollars per barrel on April 21, 2020.^[15][16] In June, Cenovus increased production at its Christina Lake oil sands project reaching record volumes of 405,658 bbls/d when the price of WCS increased "almost tenfold from April" to an average of $33.97 or C$46.03 per barrel (bbl).^[17] During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the price of WCS rose to over US$100 a barrel with the United States considering placing a ban on Russian oil imports.^[3]