Just months after dealing with high-profile oil leaks, Enbridge Inc. says it's considering building a new pipeline to the lucrative U.S. Gulf Coast.
Stephen Wuori, the company's president for liquids pipelines, says the Monarch project would connect a huge storage hub at Cushing Okla. to refineries in the Houston area.
Enbridge has been under fire in recent months for a pipeline leak that spilled hundreds of thousands of litres of oil into a southern Michigan waterway, followed by another leak near Chicago.
Enbridge rival TransCanada Corp. is already in the midst of expanding its Keystone crude pipeline to the Gulf Coast.
Enbridge is also looking to tap into attractive Asian markets through its $5.5-billion Northern Gateway proposal, which would connect oil sands crude to tankers along West Coast.
Northern Gateway faces fierce opposition from environmentalists and First Nation communities in northern British Columbia.