UPDATE 2-British Columbia to oppose Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion

(Adds Kinder Morgan (N:KMI) comment)
Jan 11 (Reuters) - The British Columbia government said on
Monday it will formally oppose the expansion of Kinder Morgan
Inc's KMI.N Trans Mountain pipeline to Canada's west coast,
another blow to oil sands producers already reeling from a
global crude price crash.
Kinder Morgan wants to nearly treble Trans Mountain's
capacity to carry 890,000 barrels per day of crude from
landlocked Alberta, to Burnaby, British Columbia, where it can
be loaded on to tankers and shipped to lucrative Asian refining
markets.
Alberta's carbon-intensive oil sands producers are desperate
for improved access to international markets for their heavy
crude, which is among the cheapest in the world and was priced
at about $16.50 a barrel outright late Thursday afternoon.
But the C$5.4 billion ($3.79 billion) project has run into
fierce environmental and aboriginal opposition.
British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak said Kinder
Morgan had failed to provide the National Energy Board (NEB), a
federal regulator, with an adequate plan to prevent or respond
to an oil spill.
In 2012 the province's premier, Christy Clark, outlined five
conditions that any company wanting to build pipelines in
British Columbia would need to meet to win approval from her
Liberal government. These included a "world-leading" marine and
land oil spill prevention, response and recovery practices.
"We have not seen evidence that convinces us that those five
conditions have been met," Polak told reporters.
The British Columbia government did not entirely rule out
the possibility of Kinder Morgan meeting their requirements in
future, adding that it will continue to evaluate the project.
"It does not close the door on them meeting that test in the
future," Polak said.
Kinder Morgan is confident that it will be able to satisfy
British Columbia's conditions by the time the regulatory process
is complete, it said in a statement.
It could not meet all the requirements such as Aboriginal
treaty rights alone and needed "multiple parties" to work
together, the company said.
Kinder Morgan filed a final written argument for the Trans
Mountain pipeline expansion project with Canadian regulators in
December.
The opposition to Trans Mountain's expansion comes after
U.S. President Barack Obama in November rejected TransCanada
Corp's TRP.TO Keystone XL pipeline in a victory for
environmentalists.
The same month, Canada's recently elected Liberal government
said it will impose an oil tanker ban on British Columbia's
northern coast, effectively slamming the door on Enbridge Inc's
ENB.TO Northern Gateway pipeline.
($1 = 1.4230 Canadian dollars)