Western Canadian Select

Western Canadian Select (WCS) is a heavy sour blend of crude oil that is one of North America's largest heavy crude oil streams and, historically, its cheapest. 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). It is composed mostly of bitumen blended with sweet synthetic and condensate diluents and 21 existing streams of both conventional and unconventional Alberta heavy crude oils at the large Husky Midstream General Partnership terminal in Hardisty, Alberta. Western Canadian Select—the benchmark for heavy, acidic (TAN <1.1) crudes—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.

Western Canadian Select (WCS) is the benchmark price for western Canadian crude blends. 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. 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). 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. In June, the Western Canadian Select (WCS) benchmark price averaged $64.35 per barrel, which was closely aligned with the year-to-date (YTD) average of $63.09. During the 2025 United States trade war with Canada, the price dropped to C$52.57 per barrel (bbl) as of April 7.

In 2023, Canada's total oil exports reached a "historical high" of 4.8 million bpd, with the United States purchasing 192.9 million metric tons that year. In 2023, oil sands extraction contributed over CA$38 billion (1.74% of GDP) and conventional crude oil and gas extraction contributed CA$33 billion (1.52% of GDP) to Canada's economy.

In November 2024, the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors (CAOEC) forecasted that a total of 6,604 wells would be drilled in Western Canada in 2025, marking a 7.3% increase from 2023. This level of activity would be the highest in the Western Canadian oil sector since the commodity price downturn of 2014-2015, which resulted in a prolonged period of industry contraction.