Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The premiums for Light Louisiana Sweet and Heavy Louisiana Sweet oils strengthened as West Texas Intermediate crude’s discount to Brent widened for a second consecutive day.

The January WTI-Brent spread widened 60 cents to settle at $9.89 a barrel. The gap for the contracts nearest to expiration has narrowed by 65 percent since reaching a record of $27.88 a barrel Oct. 14.

When Brent increases versus WTI, it strengthens the value of low-sulfur U.S. grades that compete with West African oil priced against the European benchmark.

Light Louisiana Sweet’s premium above WTI increased 80 cents to $12.30 a barrel at 4:21 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Heavy Louisiana Sweet’s premium added 65 cents to $12.65 above WTI.

Thunder Horse’s premium widened 45 cents to $11.75 above WTI. The premium for Mars Blend added $1.65 to $9.40 a barrel. Poseidon strengthened 95 cents to $9.15 a barrel over WTI.

Southern Green Canyon’s premium increased $1.10 to $8.75 a barrel and West Texas Sour’s discount widened 5 cents to 85 cents.

The discount for Western Canada Select widened 40 cents to $12.75 a barrel.

Syncrude’s premium slipped 25 cents to $5 a barrel. Syncrude is a light, low-sulfur synthetic oil derived from the tar sands in Alberta.

--Editors: Bill Banker, David Marino

Aaron Clark in New York at aclark27@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net