InterestingCanadian crude replacing Iraqi oil on U.S. West Coast: Given the years it took to build and the billions of dollars it cost, the business case for the TMX Pipeline Expansion was always to open up Asian markets for Canadian oil. But an interesting trend has emerged in the weeks since the pipeline has opened, in that a major buyer for Canadian oil isn’t an ocean away, but much closer to home. Bloomberg reports that refineries in California and Washington are set to buy about 150,000 barrels a day of Canadian oil in June. That’s seven times more than they used to buy, and it’s more than the 81,000 barrels a day that are bound for China, and the 50,000 to India put together. Time will tell where the long term trade winds blow, but in the short term, it’s fascinating to watch the U.S. and Canadian oil sectors getting even more integrated than they were before.