The closely-watched spread between the U.S. and global crude benchmarks widened to the biggest gap in four months with traders anticipating ballooning supply in America. The U.S. government plans to sell the largest volume of oil in seven years from its strategic reserves at a time when domestic refiners are gearing up for seasonal maintenance and oil consumption historically drops. That’s weighing on West Texas Intermediate crude. Meanwhile, an improving demand outlook overseas is keeping Brent prices elevated, further contributing to the gap. The U.S. strategic reserves sale comes at a time when domestic refineries are already scaling back operations earlier than normal with the delta variant starting to impact domestic demand. The spread weakness is a stark contrast from just a […]