Canadian Natural assessing duration of oil sands turnaround

By Nia Williams

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (Toronto:CNQ.TO - News) will know in the next couple of weeks whether there will be any changes to the original 45 days of planned maintenance at its Horizon oil sands project, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Planned turnaround activities at the 190,000 barrel per day plant in northern Alberta are in general "tracking to plan," spokeswoman Julie Woo said in an email.

Canadian light synthetic crude prices have rallied hard in recent days because of rumors the turnaround, which started in mid-September, could drag on into November, two market sources said on Monday.

Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for November delivery last traded at $3.85 per barrel over the West Texas Intermediate benchmark, according to Shorcan Energy brokers.

That was up from Monday's settlement of $3.10 per barrel over the benchmark.

(Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Steve Orlofsky)