The Canadian heavy oil differential narrowed against the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark on Friday, furthering a rebound from a new record-wide spread this week, but remained weighed down by refining outages and transportation bottlenecks.
* Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for November delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $46.75 a barrel below WTI crude futures , compared with Thursday's settle of $50.50, according to Shorcan Energy brokers. * Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for November delivery settled at $27.50 under WTI, inching narrower compared with Thursday's settle of $27.75. * The WCS discount hit its widest spread on record at $52 on Wednesday, while the light discount widened to a record $29.90 that same day. * The hefty discounts on Canadian crudes reflect transportation bottlenecks out of Western Canada, along with softer demand as a number of U.S. refiners are offline for maintenance. * Three refineries in Washington State have either been shut or cut operations after Enbridge Inc said a natural gas pipeline ruptured in British Columbia late on Tuesday. Those refineries run a limited amount of Canadian heavy oil. * Global crude futures steadied late in the session on Friday, following the stock market slightly higher after earlier swinging lower on a weakening oil demand outlook. (Reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)