Alberta Premier Jason Kenney
Kenney’s bad Keystone XL bet
Alberta’s premier went all in on the controversial pipeline but may lose his shirt
Alberta premier Jason Kenney made a big gamble on TC Energy’s controversial Keystone XL (KXL) crude pipeline at the end of March. The victory of Joe Biden in November’s US election means it is unlikely to pay off. Kenney backstopped the pipeline project with C$7.5bn ($5.75bn) of public money—consisting of a C$1.5bn equity stake in 2020 and a C$6bn loan guarantee in 2021—to ensure a positive FID and a quick start to construction before the US presidential vote. Besides creating jobs and economic activity in his struggling province, Kenney was hoping to create ‘facts on the ground’ to discourage the next US administration from kyboshing the project yet again. C$7.5bn – Albertan backstop
Also in this section
16 December 2025
How New Zealand highlights the importance of a clear, consistent and considered approach to oil and gas
16 December 2025
The December 2025/January 2026 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
16 December 2025
Oil prices look set to come under pressure next year as oversupply hits, but longer-term the risk is underinvestment as demand continues to grow past 2030
16 December 2025
Abdullah Aljarboua serves as a senior fellow in the energy macro & microeconomics programme at KAPSARC. His work spans macroeconomics, energy-economic modelling, large-scale optimisation and advanced computational techniques for modelling complex energy policy dynamics. Here he speaks with Petroleum Economist about the Gulf region’s role in shaping the energy landscape over the coming decades
