July 16 (Reuters) - The discount on Western Canada

Select (WCS) heavy crude versus the North American benchmark

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) widened on Tuesday:

* WCS for August delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at

$13.95 a barrel below WTI on Monday, according to brokerage

CalRock.

* "After what appears to have been a production curtailment

in the range of 200 Mb/d for about eight days due to wildfires,

Alberta's oil sands output has likely fully recovered suggesting

that the threat to production sites in the oil sands region from

the fires has eased," RBN energy analyst Martin King wrote.

* However, another production curtailment could take place

at any time as numerous wildfires remain out of control in the

oil sands region with hot dry weather persisting across parts of

northeastern Alberta, King added.

* Suncor Energy ( SU ) had shut down its 215,000

barrel-per-day (bpd) Firebag oil sands site in northern Alberta

and curtailed some production in earlu July as a precaution due

to a wildfire about eight kilometres (5 miles) away, according

to the company and an Alberta government minister.

* Global oil prices settled more than 1% lower on Tuesday,

the third straight day of losses, on worries of a slowing

Chinese economy crimping demand, though declines were stemmed by

a growing consensus the U.S. Federal Reserve could begin cutting

its key interest rate as soon as September.