WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - The Canadian government would like to see construction work on a major crude oil pipeline expansion accelerate, but has no control over decisions to resume or start new work until it takes ownership of the project, Canada's natural resources minister said.
"We think that construction and staying on a schedule is important, but that will be up to Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) as long as they are the owner of the pipeline, which will be until later on this summer," Jim Carr said in an interview in Washington, D.C. where he is attending the World Gas Conference.
The Canadian government agreed to buy Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd 's KML.TO Trans Mountain pipeline and project for C$4.5 billion in late May, promising the deal would allow work on the massive expansion to begin immediately.