TC Energy headquarters in Calgary.Todd Korol/The Canadian Press
TC Energy Corp. TRP-T expects to place $8.2-billion worth of projects into service by the end of the year, driven by the surging demand for natural gas all over North America.
Government policies across the continent have become “increasingly supportive” of development that can help meet unprecedented demand growth, chief executive officer François Poirier told analysts on an earnings call Thursday. That includes pipelines and power plants fired by natural gas.
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Mr. Poirier pointed to recent federal policy developments in Canada, for example, that he said have improved the regulatory environment for projects of national interest such as LNG Canada Phase 2, which is supplied by TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline.
The company’s latest forecast has North American natural gas demand increasing by 45 billion cubic feet a day by 2035, driven primarily by an expected tripling of liquefied natural gas exports, unprecedented power demand from data centres and coal-to-gas conversions.
In the United States, roughly 40 gigawatts of coal-fired generation is expected to retire over the next decade, the majority of which will likely be replaced by natural gas.
As one of the largest operators of natural gas storage in North America, Mr. Poirier said TC Energy is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the swelling demand for the fossil fuel.
In Mexico, for example, the government plans to bring eight gigawatts of new natural gas capacity online by 2030 – and TC Energy’s assets there are “strategically positioned to support this necessary build-out,” Mr. Poirier said.
The combination of strong demand growth for gas and favourable regulatory momentum saw TC Energy update its three-year financial outlook through 2028.
The company now expects 2026 comparable EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) to be between $11.6-billion and $11.8-billion, an increase of 6 per cent to 8 per cent over 2025.
Its 2025 to 2028 outlook includes an expected comparable EBITDA range of $12.6-billion to $13.1-billion.
However, the company reported Thursday that its third-quarter profit fell year-over-year, even as revenues edged slightly higher.
For example, net income from the company’s largest segment – U.S. natural gas pipelines – fell to $801-million in the three months ended Sept. 30. That compared with $1.3-billion a year ago.
Total revenue came in at $3.7-billion, up from $3.36-billion in the same quarter last year.
Still, the company has set 14 new natural gas pipeline flow records across its systems in 2025, and demand is only accelerating.
In Alberta, TC Energy’s pipeline system has seen an 80-per-cent increase in the volume of gas being transported for use in power generation over the past five years, said Tina Faraca, TC Energy’s executive vice-president and chief operating officer of natural gas pipelines.
“With the queue of data centre interconnections tripling over the last year, we are working closely with customers to ensure our assets can meet the market’s evolving demand,” Ms. Faraca said.
In the U.S., almost 60 per cent of data-centre projects are expected to fall in the footprint of TC Energy’s various assets in the country, she said, offering a massive opportunity for the company to deliver natural gas to fuel the growth.
TC Energy has placed $8-billion worth of projects into service this year alone, and they are tracking roughly 15 per cent under budget, Mr. Poirier said. He expects that number to climb to $8.2-billion by the end of the year.
In 2026, the company expects to bring roughly $4-billion worth of capital projects into service, including the Bruce Power Unit 3 in Ontario.
The bulk of TC Energy’s projects, however, are brownfield and corridor expansions in the U.S., where the company is expanding its existing infrastructure to capitalize on the extensive demand for power generation and data centres.
When it comes to capital expenditures, Mr. Poirier said he expects them this year to fall at the lower end of the company’s previously announced $5.5-billion to $6-billion guidance range.
In all, “robust fundamentals” in the market have seen TC Energy sanction more than $5-billion worth of new growth projects over the past 12 months.
Mr. Poirier said he expects a similarly steady march of project announcements to continue in 2026.