June 4 (Reuters) - The discount on Western Canada Select

(WCS) to the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate

futures (WTI) widened on Wednesday, as some oil sands

production that had been temporarily halted this week due to the

threat of nearby wildfires was restarted.

WCS for July delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $9.10

a barrel under the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to brokerage

CalRock, after having settled at $9 under the U.S. benchmark on

Tuesday.

The discount had narrowed earlier in the week as wildfires

burning in Canada's oil-producing province of Alberta prompted

several oil sands operations to evacuate workers as a

precaution. About 344,000 barrels per day of production, or

about 7% of Canada's average daily crude production, was

disrupted as a result.

But Canada's largest crude producer, Canadian Natural

Resources ( CNQ ), has since restarted operations at its

Jackfish 1 site and has said it anticipates the site will be

back up to full production of approximately 36,500 bpd by

Friday.

The 238,000 bpd of production that is currently shut-in at

Cenovus Energy's ( CVE ) Christina Lake oil sands site will

also likely resume soon as the risk to oil sands infrastructure

in the region appears to have lessened, said RBN Energy analyst

Martin King.

Cenovus did not respond to Reuters' request for comment on

Wednesday.

The fact the discount on Canadian heavy crude has widened

suggests the market is already looking past the wildfire

shut-ins, King added. He said when production disruptions are

short-lived, the market can draw barrels out of storage, meaning

any impact on WCS pricing is limited.

"It's not like there was ever any kind of real short-term

threat to supplies," King said.

* Globally, oil prices settled down just over 1% on

Wednesday

after U.S. data showed a surprisingly large build in gasoline

and diesel inventories, swelling fuel supplies with OPEC+

planning more output and trade tensions clouding the energy

demand outlook.