CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Canadian heavy crudedifferentials narrowed on Tuesday on tightened supply and thepossibility of strong demand for the oil to fill a new pipelineproject.
In the first day of the September trading window, WesternCanada Select heavy blend for October delivery last traded at$14.00 per barrel below the West Texas Intermediate benchmark,according to Shorcan Energy Brokers.
That compares with a settlement price on Friday of $16.35below the benchmark.
Traders are looking ahead to linefill on Enbridge Inc's 600,000-bpd Flanagan South pipeline between Illinoisand Cushing, Oklahoma, which is expected to take place inOctober and will boost demand for Canadian crude.
Also on Tuesday, Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it hadrestarted a unit at its 100,000-bpd Scotford refinery nearEdmonton, Alberta. The company posted a notice of the restart ona community information line but did not provide additionaldetail.
Maintenance at oil sands projects is also set to cut supply.
Cenovus Energy Inc has a two-week partialturnaround at its 114,000 barrel-per-day Foster Creek oil sandsproject scheduled, while ConocoPhillips is shutting down30,000 bpd of production at its Surmont project during a four-to five-week turnaround starting on Tuesday..
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd shut down syntheticcrude production for 25 days at its 119,000-bpd Horizon projectfrom mid-August in order to complete expansion work.
Light synthetic crude for October delivery last traded at 25cents above WTI, compared with Friday's settlement price of 65cents under the benchmark. (Reporting by Scott Haggett; Editing by Grant McCool)
