HOUSTON (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp (>> TransCanada Corporation) is confident the controversial Keystone XL pipeline will receive Obama administration approval and be built, Chief Executive Russ Girling said on Tuesday.

"It is the next pipeline that is going to be built" in the United States, Girling said in an interview at IHS CERAWeek in Houston.

The pipeline network was designed in four phases, three of which have been built already. TransCanada began shipping Canadian crude oil to Texas in January.

The Keystone XL portion of the network would increase capacity and allow Bakken crude oil from North Dakota and Montana to be shipped on the network.

TransCanada also would be open to building oil-loading hubs for rail networks, depending on customer needs, Girling said. Rival Enbridge (>> Enbridge Inc) has built its own network of rail hubs to service areas with limit pipeline capacity.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder)

Stocks treated in this article : Enbridge Inc, TransCanada Corporation