TransCanada will grow without Keystone XL

Pipeline company TransCanada said it had $9.75 billion worth of projects on tap that will expand its North American footprint despite recent political setbacks.

"Our $50 billion portfolio of high-quality, long-life energy infrastructure assets are expected to continue generating stable and predictable results through various market conditions," Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer, told investors in Toronto.

In its third quarter earnings report, the Canadian pipeline company said earnings of $337 million were 2 percent lower than third quarter 2014. For the nine months ending Sept. 30, earnings of $970 million were down 7.6 percent year-on-year.

That beat some of its peers in an energy sector struggling to endure through a depressed oil economy. Girling said his company was performing well, with share dividends expected to grow by as much as 10 percent per year through 2020.

The company suffered a major setback in early November when the U.S. government refused a permit to build the multi-billion dollar Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta oil fields to southern U.S. refineries. Last week, however, TransCanada announced plans to invest about $500 million on a natural gas pipeline meant to service markets in central and western Mexico.

Including the Mexican gas pipeline, TransCanada said it would have about $9.75 billion worth of small- to medium-sized projects in service in the North American market by 2018.

TransCanada may be facing a tough political climate on both sides of the border. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled an investment strategy from the sidelines of a meeting of G20 leaders in Turkey, which included dedicated funding for green infrastructure as one of the foundations of a new economy.