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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney could not have timed his trip to New York to glad-hand with major American bankers and investment managers any better.

Kenney spent three days in mid-September taxiing around Midtown Manhattan to pump up Alberta’s oil industry at 13 meetings with major funds such as private-equity giant Riverstone Holdings LLC and events organized by finance boutiques Peters & Co. Ltd. and AltaCorp Capital Inc.

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The trip, which was booked well ahead of time, occurred while the world was in turmoil following high-precision missile attacks on Abqaiq, the world’s largest oil-processing facility and one that handles 60 per cent of Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s production (better known as Saudi Aramco).

The Aramco refinery strike clearly reminded these folks on Wall Street that energy security is not just some abstraction Alberta Premier Jason Kenney

“The Aramco refinery strike clearly reminded these folks on Wall Street that energy security is not just some abstraction and Middle East energy is highly volatile. It could not have been a better backstop for my trip, which was to underscore the reliability of Canada as a major source of energy,” Kenney said, referring to the 15-per-cent surge in global oil prices and the double-digit stock gains by oil companies, including Canadian producers.