Alberta has joined the new wave of pipeline projects aimed at reducing Canada’s dependence on the U.S energy market amid a shaky relationship with the Trump administration. 

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told reporters at a recent energy conference in Calgary that the province would provide Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with a proponent and route for a pipeline project that would transport crude oil from the oil-rich region of the province to the Port of Prince Rupert.

She also revealed that the province has held talks with Major Canadian pipeline companies, banking on private sector proponents to realize Alberta’s vision of sending a million barrels of oil daily to British Columbia's northwest coast through pipelines.

According to Smith, Alberta will gauge private companies' willingness to pool the resources needed to build the pipeline network. 

Canada has long relied on the U.S market for its crude, with over 90% of its oil exports sent to companies in the U.S. However, that will change as tensions with the President Trump administration over tariff threats have forced the country to diversify its energy markets. 

The push for diversification has given Alberta, Canada’s leading oil-producing province, a significant opportunity to seek the construction of a new export pipeline that would help the country boost its oil production in the coming years. 

While no company has publicly expressed interest in building such a pipeline project, Alberta’s premier hopes that Carney will fulfil his campaign pledge of bringing about regulatory reforms that would allow quick permitting of such infrastructural projects to incentivise private companies to invest in them. 

Alberta proposes that the new oil pipeline be built alongside the Pathways Alliance's carbon capture and storage project, proposed by a consortium of oil sands companies. However, the companies have not yet reached an agreement with both the regional and federal governments over the project’s funding 

Alberta’s proposal comes just days after the British Columbia (B.C) government approved the continued construction of the long-delayed Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project, a 900-kilometre liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline that could see B.C export about 12 million tonnes of LNG annually.