CANADA CRUDE-Synthetic rises, supply outages drag on

* June WCS trades at $12.00/bbl below WTI

* June synthetic trades at $1.45/bbl above WTI

By Nia Williams

CALGARY, Alberta, May 16 (Reuters) - Canadian synthetic

crude differentials climbed on Monday as oil sands production

outages from a massive wildfire in the Fort McMurray region of

northern Alberta dragged on.

Around 1 million barrels per day of oil sands crude was shut

in early this month because of the out-of-control fire that

swept through the region, torching parts of oil sands hub Fort

McMurray and forcing some projects to evacuate workers as a

precaution.

Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: A0ET6Q - news) restarted some output at its

255,000 barrel per day Albian Sands mine on last week and Suncor

Energy said it is working on bringing back production at

its 350,000 bpd base plant, but synthetic crude supply in the

region remains well below normal levels.

Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for June delivery

last traded at $1.45 per barrel over the West Texas Intermediate

benchmark, according to Shorcan Energy brokers, strengthening

from Friday's settle of $1.05 per barrel above the benchmark.

The fire is burning around 1 kilometre away from Enbridge (Dusseldorf: EN3.DU - news)

Inc's Cheecham tank farm, Alberta officials said on

Monday, underscoring the ongoing disruptions to some critical

infrastructure in the region.

Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for June delivery

traded at $12.00 per barrel below WTI, widening 15 cents from

Friday's settle of $11.85 per barrel under the benchmark.