Sept 9 (Reuters) - The discount on Western Canada Select

to North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures

narrowed on Tuesday.

WCS for October delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at

$11.20 a barrel under the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to

brokerage CalRock, compared with $11.40 a barrel discount on

Monday.

* Tuesday's close was the narrowest discount for WCS since

late

July. Discounts widened in August due in part to the shutdown of

BP's 440,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Whiting, Indiana,

which had been affected by flooding after a severe thunderstorm.

The refinery is often the single largest purchaser of Canadian

crude.

* Still, WCS discounts are not expected to be as narrow in

the

second half of the year as they were this spring. Western

Canadian crude production continues to grow, with the

oil-producing province of Alberta hitting a new record of 4.3

million barrels per day in July. Increased output will drive

increased utilization of the country's export pipelines, said

Enverus analyst Michael Berger, adding the market will be

looking to third-quarter earnings calls for 2026 production

guidance from major oil sands companies.

* Global oil prices settled higher on Tuesday after the

Israeli

military said it carried out an attack on Hamas leadership in

Qatari capital Doha, an expansion of its years-long military

campaign across the Middle East.