Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 12/00) - To navigate the Mackenzie Valley's regulatory waters, natural gas companies operating in the Deh Cho region have put together a regulatory road map.

"It's an industry initiative. A regulatory road-mapping exercise which brought together companies operating in the Deh Cho," said Pierre Alvarez, a former NWT resident and president of the Canadian Association Petroleum Producers.

"Everybody talked about how their responsibilities line up (under the new Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act)."

Alvarez made the comments to News/North during the Chevron Canada Resources event in Fort Liard last Tuesday. The event marked the recent start of natural gas flowing from Chevron's K-29 natural gas well, located just north of Fort Liard.

The regulatory road-mapping exercise was done not only by natural gas companies, but also included regulatory agencies like the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, which oversees environmental assessments, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the National Energy Board, Fisheries and Oceans, and the GNWT.

"Over time, we're going to talk about how development that crosses boundaries would be handled," he said.

Similar processes -- to the regulatory road-map exercise -- have already begun in the Sahtu, Inuvialuit and Gwich'in settlement areas, Alvarez said.

Three wells producing

Ultimately, the goal of this road-mapping exercise, which provides a "snapshot of the current regulatory regime as it affects oil and gas in the Mackenzie Valley," is to determine ways the waters of the regulatory process can be made smoother, Alvarez said.

In recent weeks, three natural gas wells in the Deh Cho have gone into production, Chevron's K-29, Ranger Oil's P-66 and Paramount Resources' F-36.

Alvarez, who's bullish about natural gas, adds that a year ago, few knew where Fort Liard was. But with the recent production developments, "people are talking about the NWT.

"And it's not just for diamonds."

Chevron's K-29 well, now generating 75 million cubic feet per day, is the largest producer of natural gas in western Canada.

With natural gas prices at very high levels and North American demand expected to ratchet up significantly in the coming years, gas producers are looking seriously at getting arctic gas south to meet U.S. demand. Much of the new demand is coming from electrical generation plants powered by natural gas.

Producers are not only looking at a Mackenzie Valley pipeline from the Delta to the B.C. border, but also a pipeline from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay through the Yukon to B.C.

And former Tory cabinet minister Harvie Andre is heading a plan to pipe Alaskan gas to the Delta. Product from both areas would then head down the valley.