Completion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project in May 2024 marked a transformative moment for Canada’s crude oil industry, increasing the amount of oil that can make it to tidewater, and unlocking significant new export opportunities. Contrary to many analysts’ expectations, early data indicates that a large amount of this new export capacity is finding its way not to California’s refineries, but rather to China. This marks a noteworthy shift from Canada’s almost complete reliance on the United States as its predominant oil customer – a shift all the more timely given the context of recent travails in…