Kinder Morgan sees opportunity in Canada

U.S. pipeline company Kinder Morgan aims to expand a pipeline to Canada's west coast to address the country's trade ambitions, an executive said. Kinder Morgan plans to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline to 600,000 barrels of oil products per day, twice the current capacity. Opened in 1953, the pipeline is the only established route in Canada carrying products from oil sands regions to the west coast. The company's top executive, Richard Kinder, said there was "a real sense of outrage" in Canada over the delay in rival pipeline projects, notably TransCanada's plans for Keystone XL to southern U.S. refineries, Bloomberg News reports. The Canadian government had said it hopes crude oil export options. Crude oil production is expected to reach 3.5 million barrels per day by 2015 and nearly all of its oil exports go to the United States. Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver had said getting more crude oil to Asian markets through west coast deliveries was a "fundamental" objective for the country. Kinder said it would decide by summer 2012 whether to seek government approval for the expansion.