Seaway Pipeline Reversal Scheduled for May 17 -- Will We See WTI-Brent Spread Narrow?

Link here to WSJ.

It is the biggest question in the global crude-oil market: When will the gap between U.S. and European oil prices shrink back to normal? It also is one of the biggest trades.

Traders have been homing in an unusually large gulf between prices of the benchmark U.S. oil contract, known as West Texas Intermediate, and the European benchmark, known as Brent. Usually the two oil contracts trade within a few dollars of each other. But for more than a year, they have diverged widely.
Currently, Brent trades at $111.57 a barrel, $16.79 above WTI's price of $94.78. Since January 2011, the gap has been as wide as $27.88, but as recently as December it was below $8.

Now traders are seizing on signs that this spread could soon shrink. Industry experts say a new pipeline scheduled to come online in the U.S. this week is likely to help reduce a glut of oil in the Midwest. But opinions vary on how much—or even whether—the planned opening of the Seaway pipeline on May 17 will help drive up WTI prices and narrow the gap between the two oil prices. 

For the Bakken there are at least three spreads: a) WTI-Brent; b) Bakken-WTI; and, c) Bakken-Brent, though the third can be calculated from the first two.