TC Energy Corp. agreed Tuesday to negotiate native ownership shares in its pipelines with five Canadian tribes, starting with the contested Keystone XL oil project to export 830,000 b/d to the United States.

The company announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Maskwacis Nations, Ermineskin Cree Nation, Montana First Nation, as well as the Louis Bull Tribe of the Saddle Lake Cree in Alberta and Nekaneet First Nation in Saskatchewan.

The tribes belong to Natural Law Energy, a native investment group that calls itself “an economic war party…hunting and pursuing greater health, inter-tribal, inter-generational wealth and benefits for our Peoples and Nations.”

Neither TC nor the group disclosed the size of the potential Keystone XL native ownership share under...