Syncrude oil sands project cuts October sales by 1.4 million barrels – sources

The Syncrude oil sands project in northern Alberta has cut October synthetic crude sales by 1.4 million barrels because planned maintenance at the plant has been extended, three market sources said on Thursday.

Syncrude is a joint-venture bitumen mining and upgrading project, majority owned by Suncor Energy . Syncrude did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 350,000 barrel-per-day Syncrude plant had maintenance planned for the third and fourth quarters of 2019, according to Suncor’s latest investor presentation.

The Canadian crude market responded to the Syncrude cut, with light synthetic crude for November delivery strengthening to around 55 cents a barrel under the West Texas Intermediate benchmark, having settled at a discount of $1.10 a barrel under WTI on Wednesday, according to Net Energy Exchange.

Heavy crude weakened, with November Western Canada Select trading at $14.30 a barrel under WTI, widening from Wednesday’s settle of $13.85 per barrel below the benchmark.