Natural Resources Canada and the United States Department of Energy have agreed to collaborate on a wide range of energy issues for better environmental sustainability and increased energy security.

Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford officially met with his counterpart, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, in Ottawa to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

The MOU outlines how both countries plan to cooperate on initiatives including: enhancing the reliability and security of the North American energy infrastructure; enhancing coordination on the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel; and reducing the cost of carbon capture and storage.

After the meeting, the men addressed G-7 efforts to manage global priorities. In early September, Canadian and U.S. geological services travelled to Kiev to examine Ukraine’s accessibility to and quality of oil and gas geological data.

Discussion turned to how both countries can support Ukraine’s efforts to develop a viable energy contingency plan to be used in the event of an energy shortage.

Ukraine’s conflict with Russia also gave Rickford incentive to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline and how to ship more crude and natural gas to Ukraine.