COS in newsCanadian Oil Sands Ltd. (COS) lost one cent to $6.19 on 6.59 million shares. It has resumed normal operations at its only asset, its 36.7-per-cent-owned Syncrude project, following a fire in late August that forced a temporary production shutdown and then a gradual return to normal levels. Of course, "normal" has been difficult to pin down this year, because Syncrude also went through a period of maintenance in the spring. Production before the maintenance was around 100,000 barrels a day net to Canadian Oil Sands. Then it dropped to around 50,000 in April and May, while the maintenance was going on, and then it sprung up to around 120,000 for most of the summer. The fire took a massive toll on September's production, which, according to Canadian Oil Sands' website, was a measly 23,000 net barrels a day. That brings Canadian Oil Sands' year-to-date production to a little under 90,000 barrels a day. Assuming that "normal" means the postmaintenance, prefire level of 120,000 net barrels a day, and that Canadian Oil Sands can stay at that level for the rest of the year, it should just barely meet its full-year production guidance. (That guidance is 97,000 to 108,000 net barrels a day and the company would squeak in with about 97,500.) One more slip-up, though, and it will fall short.