CALGARY – Premiers, energy ministers, CEOs and a throng of international visitors are poised to descend on Calgary next week, when the annual Global Energy Show kicks off against a vastly different backdrop than the event last year.
A year ago Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was just beginning to float the idea of a new West Coast oil pipeline, her government had yet to sign an energy accord with Ottawa setting out conditions for that plan and there was no war in the Middle East upending energy markets.
Yet one theme remains consistent, said Nick Samain, senior vice-president of organizer DMG Events: the need for Canada to diversify its energy export markets and to build the infrastructure needed to make it happen.
More than 30,000 attendees are expected at the conference and trade show, which begins on June 9. A lot of that is driven by international visitors, including those from the United States, who are intrigued by what Canada has to offer, said Samain.
“There’s just a tremendous amount of interest here, and I think confidence that it’s a market on the rise when it comes to energy,” he said, adding the federal government and public at large seem more willing to embrace oil and gas development than in years past.
“There’s just a better mood because people see projects happening and a little less partisanship.”
He added 500 exhibitors are expected on the trade show floor, an increase of more than 10 per cent from a year earlier, many of them international pavilions that haven’t been there in the past. Less than a week before the show is set to begin, Samain said organizers are fielding last-minute sign-ups for the few remaining spots in the vast BMO Centre exhibition hall.
“People are really taking Canada seriously as an energy producer.”
Since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began in late February, oil and liquefied natural gas tanker shipments from the Persian Gulf have largely been unable to move to customers in Asia and Europe via the Strait of Hormuz. That’s driven up commodity prices and caused countries to look at other sources of supply, like Canada, though this country currently has a limited ability to connect resources to coastal export points.
Smith told last year’s conference she was looking to drum up private-sector interest in building a new oilsands pipeline to a northern B.C. port like Prince Rupert, B.C. Her government is now spearheading such a proposal, with technical advice from industry, with the aim of submitting an application to the federal major project office within the next month. The office, set up about a year ago, is meant to help speed along infrastructure deemed in Canada’s national interest.
Among the scheduled speakers at this year’s conference are federal Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories and provincial energy ministers. The roster also includes the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co’s upstream division, Nigerian ministers of state for oil and gas and Ukrainian and Indian diplomats.
The 2026 Global Energy show is also devoting more exhibition space and conference stage time to artificial intelligence and data centres than in years past, said Samain. Those facilities require an enormous amount of electricity to run and cool the vast computing firepower housed within, and many projects in the U.S. and Canada are coming with their own dedicated power plants on the same property.
“AI data centres are becoming a whole new consumer group of energy that’s growing,” said Samain.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2026.
