After learning of President Obama’s decision to reject a permit for TransCanada Corporation’s Keystone XL oil pipeline, Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the country's "financial security." According to Oliver, the - decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the President, - Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports. Currently, 99 percent of Canada's crude exports go to the U.S., a figure that Harper wants to reduce in his bid to make Canada a "superpower" in global energy markets. Canada accounts for more than 90 percent of all proven reserves outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers reports that, according to data compiled in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, most of Canada's crude is produced from oil-sands deposits in the landlocked province of Alberta, where output is expected to double over the next eight years.