Yukon gas needs big Arctic pipelines
Yukon natural gas could be fed into either the Mackenzie or Alaska pipelines by 2014 once explorers have a reason to exploit the stranded resource, according to a study funded by the territorial government.
But the 80-page report by Fekete Associates and Vector Research, prepared for the North Yukon Oil and Gas Working Group (made up of Yukon government and aboriginal representatives) doubts that the region could ever support a stand-alone pipeline.
The Yukon Geological Survey has estimated the north Yukon has a resource potential of 11 trillion cubic feet.
Mackenzie most likely link The researchers believe the Mackenzie pipeline would be the most obvious means of delivering gas from north Yukon fields to markets in southern Canada and the United States.
That option could involve building a 210-mile feeder line to join the Mackenzie system at Inuvik, Northwest Territories — a far shorter connection than linking up with the Alaska Highway pipeline at either Tok, Alaska, or Whitehorse, Yukon.
A 20-inch system could start deliveries of 256 million cubic feet per day, climbing to 410 million cubic feet per day.
Five years would be needed to prepare for construction and build the link, but exploration is unlikely to swing into action until 2007 or 2008, once access to market is certain.
Of the Yukon’s best bets, Eagle Plain has an estimated 6 tcf, but has so far seen only 34 wells. Of the other north Yukon basins (North Coast, Old Crow, Peel Plateau and Bonnett Plume) the potential ranges from 9 billion cubic feet to 2.8 tcf.
The southern Yukon resources include 4.8 tcf at the Liard Plateau and 2.5 tcf at the Whitehorse Trough.
North and south oil resource estimates total 924 million barrels.
—Gary Park
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