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Mackenzie Valley pipeline backers dangle billion-dollar bonanza Northwest Territories government places potential labor and revenue spin-offs for Alberta at C$2.2 billion, but says even more business opportunities beckon By Gary Park PNA Canadian Correspondent
The hard-sell is in full swing, as the Northwest Territories government pitches its southern neighbors in Canada on the “billions” of dollars in potential spin-offs from a stand-alone Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline.
The Northwest Territories government’s senior pipeline adviser Bob Marshall told industry executives in Calgary Jan. 25 that the pipeline would create 19,478 person-years of employment and pump C$2.2 billion into the Alberta economy between now and 2034.
Using figures compiled by TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., he said the scheme would add C$1.27 billion to the provincial gross domestic product, generate labor income of C$847 million and pump C$100 million into provincial coffers.
Other Alberta opportunities
But Marshall suggested the projections are low because they reflect “only one aspect” of the opportunities available to Alberta.
He said a 1,000-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline tapping the Mackenzie Delta’s 9 trillion cubic feet of known gas reserves would yield “numerous and phenomenal” other prospects for Alberta business.
That list would include:
• Engineering, environmental studies and project management of all pre-construction and construction phases.
• Upstream production facilities, gathering systems, dehydration and compression facilities.
• Freight, equipment and materials hauling.
• Base camp supply and expansion.
• Construction and operation of the pipeline and associated facilities. Gas liquids available With the prospect of Delta shipments of about 1.2 billion cubic feet per day, valuable gas liquids would be available for Alberta’s strong petrochemical sector and, once started, a pipeline would entice Alberta-based companies to step up exploration and development in the Arctic.
As the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin continues its decline, E&P companies would have no choice but to direct their attention to the North, said Marshall, who has been seconded to the Northwest Territories government from his job as a TransCanada PipeLines pipeline construction expert.
In the midst of hot competition to secure pipeline rights from the Delta and Alaska, Marshall expressed confidence that the stand-alone Mackenzie Valley system has many advantages.
“One, it originates and terminates in Canada. No. 2, there’s Canadian gas flowing through that pipe and No. 3, the expertise, the resources it would take to put this together are resident in Canada,” he said.
But he also conceded that “we in the NWT have our finger crossed, to say the least.”
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