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Mackenzie gas project faces full review Canadian government orders exhaustive environmental assessment; decision welcomed by Imperial Oil, which sees no reason why project should be delayed Gary Park Petroleum News Calgary Correspondent
The Mackenzie Gas Project will get a thorough environmental probe to ensure there is no negative impact within the Inuvialuit area of the Mackenzie Delta region.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced Jan. 30 that a special federal review panel will be appointed to conduct the “most rigorous level of environmental assessment.”
Environment Minister David Anderson said the referral is an important step in “establishing a rigorous, coordinated environmental assessment process for the entire project.”
He said the process will “allow for significant cooperation between the Inuvialuit and the federal government while ensuring a level of scrutiny that a project of this magnitude deserves.” Two Inuvialuit-nominated members on panel Frank Pokiak, chair of the Inuvialuit Game Council, said he was satisfied that the inclusion of two Inuvialuit-nominated members on the panel would ensure that aboriginal interests could be accommodated.
“This is especially important since such an extensive and significant part of this gas project — the gas fields and the gas gathering system — are located within our settlement region,” he said.
Anderson set the wheels in motion last August to establish a single joint review panel process by referring the project to a screening committee, which determined the project could have a significant negative impact on the environment or Inuvialuit wildlife harvesting in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and decided to refer the project to the federal review panel process. Review will help determine pipeline location Hart Searle, a spokesman for Imperial, the lead partner in the Mackenzie Delta Producers Group, told the Calgary Herald the decision to conduct a detailed review was not unexpected and was a step the project sponsors had recommended.
He said there was nothing to indicate a delay in having the project completed. If construction work starts on the gathering system and main pipeline in 2006, the first deliveries are still possible in 2008 or 2009.
Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club of Canada, the Canadian Nature Federation and the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, have signaled their intention to challenge the Mackenzie project and demand an examination of alternative energy projects.
In the meantime, progress on soil analysis and geotechnical surveys is moving ahead along the 800-mile pipeline route.
Searle told Petroleum News the work will help determine the optimal location of the pipeline.
He said the program has been completed in the Inuvialuit area and is now under way in the Gwich’in and Sahtu regions, while negotiations are taking place with the Deh Cho to extend the studies to the lower Northwest Territories.
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