Alberta Finance Minister Jason Nixon recently suggested that supporters of Alberta independence need to explain how an independent Alberta would sell its oil.

"If the new country is depending on oil they're going to need to know how the heck they're going to sell it."

But Alberta already knows how to sell its oil.

Alberta’s Treasurer @JasonNixonAB says he doesn’t know how Alberta would sell its oil if Alberta were a new country.

The answer seems obvious: the same way we sell it now — private producers, contracts, pipelines, ports, and global buyers.

Only it would be easier, more… https://t.co/ACp4pvTiH3

— Keith Wilson (@ikwilson) June 3, 2026

Oil isn't sold by the Government of Canada. Ottawa doesn't negotiate contracts, market Alberta crude or find customers. Alberta's oil is produced and sold by private companies using existing pipelines, rail networks, export terminals and commercial agreements.

The infrastructure already exists. The customers already exist. The industry already exists.

In fact, one of Alberta's longstanding complaints has been that federal governments have made it more difficult to build additional infrastructure through legislation such as Bill C-69, emissions caps and other regulatory barriers.

An independent Alberta would inherit the oil wells, pipelines, contracts and customers that exist today. If more export capacity were needed, it could build more infrastructure, just as energy-producing countries around the world do.

The real questions surrounding independence involve debt allocation, trade agreements, citizenship and constitutional negotiations.

How Alberta sells its oil is not a mystery. Alberta has been doing it successfully for decades.