TC Energy Corp. chief executive François Poirier says the pipeline giant is currently focused on opportunities in the United States, but fended off inquiries about the company’s willingness to entertain another major Canadian pipeline project.

“Right now, we see the highest risk-adjusted returns being in the United States,” Poirier said during a quarterly earnings conference call on Friday. “The vast majority of our discretionary capital is going, and we expect that it will continue to go, into the United States.”

U.S. President Donald Trump‘s threat to impose a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican energy has reignited public discussion of Canada reviving major export pipeline proposals, including TC’s Energy East project.

But TC Energy said circumstances have changed since the project was first proposed.

The company’s Canadian Mainline, a formerly underused natural gas pipeline the company had proposed to convert to transport crude oil as part of the original vision for Energy East, is now fully contracted. One segment of the Canadian Mainline, Line 2, remains unavailable for service, TC Energy said, though it could be restored depending on how market conditions develop.

The company also divested its oil pipeline business in a spinoff called South Bow Corp. last October.

“With respect to what I would call an ‘energy corridor’ from coast to coast to coast — lots of inquiries on the liquid side — I would refer those to our friends and former colleagues at South Bow,” Poirier said.

He was more optimistic about the prospect of the country’s first liquefied natural gas export terminal, LNG Canada, being greenlit for expansion this year in a move that would require TC Energy to deploy additional compressor stations to boost capacity on its Coastal GasLink pipeline.

“There is absolutely demand for more LNG export and market opportunity for us to prosecute,” Poirier said. “We’re very bullish about the prospects for CGL phase two happening.”

The Calgary-based company beat analyst estimates by posting a profit of $1.1 billion, or $1.05 per share, in the last three months of 2024.

Though it reported lower year-over-year earnings from its Canadian and U.S. natural gas pipelines, these were offset by gains in its power business and its natural gas pipeline business in Mexico, where a weakening of the peso contributed to year-over-year gains since TC Energy’s revenues were paid in U.S. dollars.

TC Energy is also celebrating the mechanical completion of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico. The company said the 715-kilometre offshore natural gas pipeline project was 13 per cent under budget, and the pipeline is expected to be in service May 1.

The company also faced questions about how U.S. tariffs will impact its operations, which span assets in pipelines, power generation and storage across North America.

Midstream firms such as TC Energy have been trying to reassure investors that their exposure to tariffs may be negligible, at least in the short term, since the majority of their cash flows come from regulated cost-of-service pipeline tolls and take-or-pay contracts that guarantee revenue even if shippers elect not to ship.

“We recognize that prolonged tariffs could impact capital allocation decisions; however, our diverse portfolio across three jurisdictions enables us to continue allocating capital to markets with sustained energy demand,” Poirier said, adding that the majority of TC’s discretionary capital spending would go to projects transporting U.S. production to U.S. demand centres so “there would be no tariff impacts.”

• Email: mpotkins@postmedia.com

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