Enbridge Inc, which wants to build the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline to haul Canadian oil sands crude to the Pacific Coast, said that the project’s leading proponent, Chief Executive Pat Daniel, will retire this year. The company said Daniel, 65, will leave by year-end and will be replaced by Al Monaco, the executive now heading the company’s natural-gas pipeline business. Enbridge said Monaco will join its board and take on the role of president immediately. The choice of Monaco was a surprise to some as other senior executives such as Chief Financial Officer Richard Bird and Stephen Wuori, who oversees the oil pipeline business, were seen as legitimate contenders for the position. “I think he’ll be a fine CEO,” said Steven Paget, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital. “He had to be considered one of the three frontrunners for the position. I’m very pleased Enbridge picked an internal candidate.” Enbridge pipelines carry the bulk of Canada’s oil exports to the United States. Daniel, who took charge in 2001, concentrated on expanding its pipeline capacity into the US Midwest to transport growing production in the northern Alberta oil sands. Daniel’s retirement will come well before hearings into the company’s marquee project, the C$5.5 billion ($5.5 billion) Northern Gateway pipeline to carry oil sands crude from Alberta to a Pacific port, are complete. However Daniel will turn 66 this summer, and he said it was time to let others take over. “I feel very, very committed to it personally,” Daniel told reporters. “It’s been 12 years since we started the concept but it’s going to take some time to work its way through and we’ve got such great young talent in this company, I just don’t want to stand in the way.”