The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX) may still be months away from completion, but industry insiders have already started speculating on how it will impact the oil sector, from a potential increase in the price of Canadian oil to the opening of new export markets. The Post's Naimul Karim writes that the expansion project will twin the existing 1,150-kilometre Trans Mountain pipeline between Alberta and British Columbia and enhance the system's export facilities. The original pipeline was built in 1953 and has the capacity to transfer about 300,000 barrels per day. The new pipeline will be able to deliver another 590,000 barrels per day. The main goal of the pipeline is to ensure Canadian oil producers get better prices for their product. It would cost about $9 to $10 a barrel to transport oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast through pipelines, according to BMO analyst Randy Ollenberger, and about $17 by rail (all figures U.S.). He expects the price differential between Canadian and U.S. oil to more or less reflect the transportation cost between the two markets and drop to around $10 to $12 per barrel from $19 after the pipeline starts.