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Mackenzie Delta pipeline talks enter vital phase
Gary Park, PNA Canadian correspondent
The scramble to arrange financing for an aboriginal ownership stake in the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline is in the make-or-break stage.
Although negotiations are taking place under a news blackout, sources say the Aboriginal Pipeline Group is holding talks in Calgary to obtain C$70 million to support its share of preliminary engineering and environmental planning for a pipeline and keep alive its hopes of an eventual C$1 billion stake in the venture.
Earlier this month, Aboriginal Pipeline Group chairman Fred Carmichael told reporters in the Northwest Territories he was “90 percent sure or better” that a deal with private-sector funder was imminent.
But his optimism has been dented by a Jan. 24 deal that has seen an aboriginal group in the Central Mackenzie Valley agree to provide land access to the Northern Route Gas Pipeline Corp., which supports the “over-the-top” route from the North Slope, under the Beaufort Sea and along the Mackenzie Valley.
That pact not only points to further splintering within aboriginal ranks, it potentially creates an obstacle for backers of the Mackenzie Valley stand-alone project, who are dependent on gaining access to First Nations lands.
The K’asho Got’ine Land Corp., based in Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories, said Jan. 24 that the Northern Route plan advanced by Houston-based Arctic Resources Co. and its Canadian affiliate, ArctiGas Resources Corp. offers the best deal to aboriginals.
Landowners want full control Robert Kelley, president of the land corporation, told the Financial Post that the aboriginal landowners need to ensure that they are in full control of their lands and environment that will be impacted by a project that “will here for generations.”
The K’asho Got’ine deal has been welcomed by ArctiGas chairman Harvie Andre as an important development in strengthening the case for a staged pipeline route that combines gas from both the North Slope and Mackenzie Delta.
The cornerstone of the Northern Route project is 100 percent ownership of the Canadian portion by Northern Route Gas Pipeline, a wholly owned aboriginal Canadian corporation.
The pipeline through the Northwest Territories would be fully financed by debt, with management of the project in the hands of an ArctiGas limited partnership, including aboriginal communities, producers, E&P companies and transporters.
To date, the strongest aboriginal support for ArctiGas has come from the Deh Cho First Nations covering a vast area of the lower Northwest Territories, but communities representing an estimated 75 percent of residents affected by the pipeline route are partners in the Aboriginal Pipeline Group memorandum of understanding with the Mackenzie Delta Producers Group.
However, 21 of 29 Dene chiefs decided in December to take a second look at the Northern Route proposal and other cracks have started to test the strength of aboriginal unity.
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