Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (fka COSWF)

[OilStockReport]

COSWF favored over CNQ.

A widening of the price difference between Syncrude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to $12 a barrel, which, when added to $105 for the benchmark WTI, magnifies the price of Syncrude to $117, a boon for buy-recommended Canadian Oil Sands (COSWF.PK) . Cash flow for the Syncrude producer is multiplied further by better than expected volume for the past three months.

While upgraded oil, such as Syncrude, is becoming relatively more valuable, the price difference between raw oil sands (bitumen) and WTI is widening in the other direction to more than $30 a barrel less than WTI. Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) is doubly impacted as its resources are primarily heavy oil that is priced closer to bitumen and its new plant to upgrade bitumen to synthetic crude oil will be idle for most of the year due to an unfortunate fire in January.