More of Mackenzie Delta could be opened for exploration

Gary Park

Another aboriginal community in Canada’s Arctic is attempting to cash in on exploration interest in the Mackenzie Delta.

The Nahanni Butte Dene has requested federal government permission to make some of its traditional lands available for exploration licenses next year. It has not specified what land would be opened up. To prepare the way for exploration rights, the Nahanni Butte band has hired Arcis Corp. to shoot 180 miles of two-dimensional seismic this summer and a 240-mile 2-D survey in the first quarter of next year.

Northwest Territories Energy Minister Joseph Handley said new licenses in the south end of the gas-rich Delta should offer industry a natural extension of the region’s “prolific Foothills geological trend.”

The Inuvialuit Regional Corp. became the trailblazer for aboriginal communities a year ago when it awarded rights for four Delta parcels to three Calgary-based companies for C$75.5 million. Chevron Canada, Petro-Canada and Anderson Exploration are committed to drill exploratory wells over a 20-year period on 766,785 acres.

The IRC or one of its subsidiaries has a right to take a 25 percent working interest in any discovery and collect royalties of 5 percent in the first four years, 10 percent in the next four years and 15 percent thereafter.