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CALGARY — With the future of the proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline proposed by Enbridge Inc. looking bleak because of hardening opposition, competitor Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP surged from behind Thursday with a plan for a better-looking replacement — a $5-billion expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to Vancouver.

The expansion would increase the capacity of the 62-year-old line — the only one moving oil from Alberta to the West Coast and Asia — to 850,000 barrels a day, from today’s 300,000.

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The expansion is bigger than under previous plans, which called for a $3.8-billion, 600,000-bpd project, and would reduce the need for Northern Gateway, with a capacity of 550,000 bpd, at least for now. If approved by regulators, the expanded system would be operational by 2017, years before Northern Gateway’s planned startup.

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The Kinder Morgan plan is backed by 20-year commitments from existing and new shippers following a so-called open season. They suggest that producers, refiners and offshore interests are backing a new horse in the race to diversify Canada’s oil market in Asia.