April 12, 2012. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. said it will build a $5 billion expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline, more than doubling the capacity of crude it can ship to Canada's west coast -the latest project aimed at moving Canada's rising oil production to markets other than the U.S. Almost all Canadian crude exports currently travel to the U.S. While Canadian oil output has been rising fast, pipeline capacity to move it from the country's biggest oil patch in landlocked Alberta to refining markets in the U.S. has been stretched. That - and climbing oil production in the U.S. itself - has depressed prices for Canadian crude. Trans Mountain already ships a small amount of crude from Alberta to Vancouver. The expansion will increase that volume to 850,000 barrels a day from 300,000 barrels a day, and would allow Asian buyers to load Canadian crude in significant volumes. The expansion is competing with other projects to bring Canadian oil to the west coast. Enbridge Inc. has proposed the Northern Gateway pipeline that would take oil from Alberta to a small, northern port in British Columbia. That line faces strong resistance from native groups. Canadian oil executives and politicians have ratcheted up support for westward-running pipelines after the U.S. blocked a key oil pipeline expansion that envisioned sending more oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Last year, the White House delayed approval of the line, TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL, which became ensnarled in a political battle in Washington.