April 13 (Reuters) - Canadian heavy crude's discount to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) widened on Tuesday but held close to recent strong levels:
* Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for May delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, widened to settle at $10.80 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2 Canada Inc. On Monday it settled at $10.50 per barrel below the benchmark.
* WCS has traded in a narrow range roughly between $10 and $11 per barrel below U.S. crude so far this month, propped up by strong demand for heavy crude barrels in the United States.
* Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for May delivery settled at $1 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2. On Monday synthetic settled at 20 cents a barrel below WTI.
* Synthetic prices have been strong in recent weeks due to maintenance work on major oil sands upgraders, which process mined bitumen into synthetic crude, but Canadian Natural Resources Ltd's CNQ.TO 30-day Horizon turnaround is scheduled to be finished by May, which will increase supply.
* Suncor Energy Inc's SU.TO base plant and its Syncrude project will both still be in turnaround next month. WTI settled up 48 cents at $60.18 a barrel on strong Chinese import data, but the rally was capped by concerns that pauses on the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) vaccine could delay economic recovery and limit oil demand growth. O/R