(Adds details on Syncrude outage, synthetic crude prices)
By Nia Williams and Catherine Ngai
CALGARY, Alberta/NEW YORK April 19 (Reuters) - The Syncrude Canada oil sands project has issued an update to customers reiterating that it expects to run at reduced rates in May and June, two trading sources said on Wednesday.
The update said there was no change to Syncrude's most recent forecast that it will produce 5.3 million barrels in May and 6.6 million barrels in June, according to the sources.
The plant in northern Alberta has capacity to produce 350,000 barrels per day, nearly 11 million barrels per month, but cut production in April to zero after a fire in March that damaged the facility and forced Syncrude to bring forward planned maintenance.
Syncrude did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Traders said production rates for May and June were expected to be lower even before the fire because of the scheduled turnaround, but the outages still sent synthetic crude prices surging higher in recent weeks.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands for May delivery settled at $2.50 per barrel over the West Texas Intermediate benchmark on Tuesday, while June barrels settled at $2.35 per barrel over WTI.
There were no synthetic crude trades on early Wednesday morning, according to Shorcan Energy brokers, although June barrels were last bid at a $2.20 per barrel premium over WTI and offered at $2.95 a barrel over the benchmark.
Volumes were thin as the Canadian crude market is outside a 2.5-week-long trading window, which lasts from the first of the month until the day before pipeline nominations are due, in which the bulk of transactions take place.