Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The premiums for Light Louisiana Sweet and Heavy Louisiana Sweet oils weakened as the difference between U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate and Brent narrowed.

The January WTI-Brent spread narrowed 60 cents to $8.93 a barrel at 1:06 p.m. in New York. The gap for the contracts has narrowed by 68 percent since reaching a record of $27.88 a barrel Oct. 14.

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

Light Louisiana Sweet’s premium to WTI decreased 10 cents to $10.55 a barrel at 12:06 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Heavy Louisiana Sweet’s premium narrowed 15 cents to $11.

Thunder Horse’s premium to WTI narrowed 10 cents to $8.75. The premium for Mars Blend decreased 20 cents to $6.50 a barrel. Poseidon’s premium narrowed 25 cents to $5.50 a barrel over WTI.

Southern Green Canyon’s premium increased 15 cents to $5.40 a barrel and West Texas Sour’s discount was unchanged at 85 cents.

The discount for Western Canada Select was unchanged at $12.90 a barrel.

Syncrude’s premium was unchanged at $2.90 a barrel. Syncrude is a light, low-sulfur synthetic oil derived from the tar sands in Alberta.

--Editors: Richard Stubbe, Bill Banker

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Clark in New York at aclark27@bloomberg.net

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