Kansas City Southern is “working on several new opportunities” to move heavy Canadian crude oil via rail to the U.S. Gulf Coast region, a top executive told analysts on Friday. The railroad’s shipped crude volumes rose by more than 50 percent in 2013, compared with the prior year, despite a pullback in shipments of North Dakota Bakken crude to the Gulf region, Patrick Ottensmeyer, executive vice president of sales and marketing, said on a quarterly earnings call. He said the company expects shipments of Canadian crude to increase in 2014 and beyond, particularly as specialized offloading equipment is installed at various destination points, such as Port Arthur, Texas, and Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana. “We are working on several new opportunities throughout the Gulf region,” he said.