CALGARY — TC Energy Corp. has raised its forecast for North American natural gas demand in the coming years and is considering ways its vast Canadian and U.S. pipeline network can respond to the surge. The Calgary-based company is expecting 51 billion cubic feet per day in demand growth from 2025 levels through to 2035, driven by liquefied natural gas exports, gas-fired power generation and industrial growth. In late 2024, it had forecast 40 bcf/d. As recently as February of this year it had been calling for 46 bcf/d. “Importantly, nearly 70 per cent of this demand growth is concentrated in the U.S. heartland, Alberta, and Mexico — regions where TC Energy has a strong incumbent position and significant existing infrastructure,” TC chief executive François Poirier told analysts on a conference call after the company reported a bump in second-quarter profits. TC offered additional natural gas shipping services in the Greater Edmonton Area in March of this year, and all of that pipeline capacity was snapped up. Another offering for space on TC’s intra-Alberta network between 2030 and 2032 saw record amounts of participation from data centre developers, Poirier added. “Given this strong customer interest, we are exploring opportunities to expand this offering to better meet customer demand.” In the U.S., TC is expecting to make a final investment decision on its Crossroads project in the fourth quarter of this year. Crossroads is a 365-kilometre pipeline in Indiana and Ohio and the company has announced plans to expand the system by 1.5 bcf/d. TC said in May that there was 2.5 times as much interest in the Crossroads expansion than the initial capacity offered. TC has signed agreements with some shippers for that project and is in advanced discussions with more potential customers. “We continue to evaluate opportunities to expand the project’s scope with additional shippers,” Poirier said. Data centre development is expected to be a big demand draw for natural gas in Canada and the U.S. The facilities house the computing hardware needed in a variety of tech applications and their scale has ballooned with the boom in artificial intelligence. Some facilities require enough power daily to power a whole city. In Canada, data centre industry growth has been centred on Alberta, which has been actively courting big tech titans to set up shop in the province. The provincial government is prioritizing projects that provide their own power generation so as to not overburden the grid — and that power is coming mainly from natural gas-fired generation. The surge in data centre development has given rise to local community concerns over pollution, noise, water use and utility bills, but the opposition hasn’t led to a slowdown in the opportunities TC has before it, Poirier said. Earlier Thursday, TC reported $987 million in net income attributable to common shareholders for its second quarter, up from $833 million a year earlier. The profit amounted to 95 cents per share for the quarter ended June 30, an increase from 80 cents per share in the second quarter of 2025. TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to 94 cents per share, up from 82 cents per share a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter totalled $3.96 billion, up from $3.74 billion in the same quarter last year. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2026.
