Sept 3 (Reuters) - The discount on Western Canada Select

to North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures

narrowed on Wednesday.

WCS for October delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at

$11.45 a barrel under the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to

brokerage CalRock, compared with $11.70 a barrel discount on

Tuesday.

* Prior to this week's tightening, the WCS discount had

widened to

as much as $12.80 a barrel in late August. The sharp widening

was due in part to BP's 440,000-barrel-per-day refinery

in Whiting, Indiana, being affected by flooding after a severe

thunderstorm. The refinery, which wasn't fully back to full

operations until a week later, is often the single-largest

purchaser of Canadian crude, said Rory Johnston, founder of the

Commodity Context newsletter.

* Another factor behind the recent widening trend is the

threat of

competition from Venezuelan heavy crude exports to the U.S. Gulf

Coast, which resumed last month due to easing of U.S. sanctions.

* Western Canadian oil production continues to grow, but WCS

prices should remain generally supported this fall due to the

opening of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in 2024,

analysts say. The pipeline, which moves oil from Alberta to

British Columbia's Pacific coast, increased global export

options for Canadian oil shippers and is expected to have spare

capacity until 2027-28.

* Global oil prices settled down more than 2% on Wednesday

ahead

of a weekend meeting of OPEC+ producers that is expected to

consider another increase in production targets in October.