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Mackenzie for the birds Gas project proponents say recommended sanctuary noise levels ‘rigid, untested’ Gary Park For Petroleum News
The “entire” Mackenzie Gas Project could hang on whether the National Energy Board upholds a recommendation to protect a bird sanctuary on the Mackenzie Delta, Imperial Oil and its partners have told the federal regulator.
Responding to 176 recommendations contained in the findings of a Joint Review Panel, which examined the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the project, the MGP proponents said enforcing strict noise limits at the Kendall Island Bird Sanctuary could undo the project.
The JRP said the noise levels should be kept below 50 decibels at almost 1,000 feet from the sanctuary’s fence line.
Imperial said the proponents are “concerned about imposing a rigid, untested noise abatement requirement at this time, without adequate practical knowledge and proven implementation.”
It said the JRP’s suggested noise level had already proved impossible to meet and argued it was not needed to protect birds in the sanctuary from adverse effects.
It said that enforcing the recommendation would prevent development of two of the three anchor natural gas fields, which contain established reserves of 5.8 trillion cubic feet.
Threat to development “To make this condition for any approvals for facilities in the Kendall Island Bird Sanctuary would have the potential effect of preventing development of the Taglu and Niglintgak anchor fields, and therefore, the entire Mackenzie Gas Project.”
Taglu, with 3 tcf of discovered gas, is 100 percent owned by Imperial, and Niglintgak, wholly owned by Shell Canada has 1 tcf. The third field is Parsons Lake, owned 75 percent by ConocoPhillips Canada and 25 percent by ExxonMobil Canada, and has an estimated 1.8 tcf.
Imperial urged the NEB to reject several of the JRP’s recommendations, targeting measures the partners believe would be inappropriate and time-consuming.
The JRP urged the NEB to withhold approvals for any future applications for projects or activities until some measures were completed.
Imperial argued against any blanket rejection, calling for applications to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
It also said a recommendation requiring the proponents to complete certain tasks before any construction begins would be a problem because work would take place at various locations over four years.
“It is not practical to expect that all plans, manuals and specifications for all construction activities at all locations will be made available before the first right-of-way or site preparation activity begins,” Imperial told the NEB.
Recommendations ‘far-reaching’ The company said about half of the JRP recommendations are “far-reaching and apply to activities that are not associated with the Mackenzie Gas Project,” urging the governments involved to avoid taking any steps that could discourage development of Canada’s North.
It said recommendations to block facility applications that have yet to be filed were “tantamount to fettering the board’s discretion to determine the outcome of future proceedings.”
The proponents also said the NEB should not require them to establish greenhouse gas emissions targets in collaboration with the Canadian and Northwest territories governments before construction starts.
They said those targets should be developed by governments and applied to industry as a whole to ensure that all project developers and facilities are treated equitably, rather than being handled on a case-by-case basis.
The NEB is scheduled to hear final arguments on the MGP April 12-24 in the Northwest Territories before releasing a verdict in September for a final decision by the Canadian government.
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