UPDATE 2-Enbridge Gateway line gains footing; profit jumps

(Adds CEO comments, details. Changes dateline, previous Toronto)

By Jeffrey Jones

CALGARY, Alberta, July 31 (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) is making big strides with a multibillion-dollar plan to ship crude from Canada's oil sands to Asia, the pipeline operator said on Thursday as it reported a more than fourfold jump in second-quarter profit.

Enbridge, Canada's No. 2 pipeline company, also boosted its forecast for 2008 earnings. Its shares jumped 4 percent.

The company aims to file its regulatory application for the Gateway pipeline in the first quarter of next year, having secured C$100 million ($98 million) in funding for the effort from oil sands producers and Asian refiners, Chief Executive Pat Daniel said.

"We've now held a number of joint project meetings with them to get their guidance and direction and input on the project and have got very strong support to move this along as quickly and promptly as we can," Daniel told analysts.

Enbridge had put Gateway on the backburner to move ahead with its extensive U.S. pipeline expansion plans, but remounted the proposal early this year amid growing interest from refiners in Singapore and Japan. Daniel declined to disclose the players pushing the proposal ahead.

The company is consulting with landowners and aboriginal communities along the proposed route across the Rocky Mountains, and has garnered positive reaction from the federal and provincial governments, Daniel said.

"It's considered very much in Canada's national and best interest and we see momentum building," he said.