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Second-quarter profit at Canadian Oil Sands Trust , the Syncrude Canada oil sands venture's biggest interest holder, jumped 54 percent on higher production and surging prices, it said on Tuesday.

Canadian Oil Sands, which looks set to buy junior gas producer Canada Southern Petroleum Ltd. for C$224 million ($198 million) following a bidding war, earned C$337 million, or 72 Canadian cents a trust unit, up from year-earlier C$219 million, or 48 Canadian cents a unit.

Excluding one-time items, the trust earned C$259 million, or 56 Canadian cents a unit, up 11 percent from C$233 million, or 51 Canadian cents in the year earlier quarter.

That beat an average estimate of 34 Canadian cents a unit among analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.

Funds from operations, the money trusts use to pay distributions to their unit holders, rose 14 percent to C$324 million, or 70 Canadian cents a unit, from C$284 million, or 62 Canadian cents, in the second quarter of 2005.

Canadian Oil Sands has a 35 percent stake in Syncrude, which is now restarting new equipment following its C$8.4 billion expansion, a move that was delayed earlier by mechanical problems.

The trust said it reduced its full-year mid-point outlook for Syncrude production to 90 million barrels from 95 million due to the delay in restarting the newly expanded equipment.

Its funds from operations for the year are now pegged at C$1 billion, or C$2.22 per unit.

Second-quarter results were helped by higher prices for Syncrude's synthetic crude oil and higher production from the project.

Production net to its share of Syncrude averaged 86,000 barrels a day in the quarter, up 7.5 percent.

The trust units rose 89 Canadian cents to C$33.85 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1=$1.14 Canadian)