Yellowknife (Apr 16/03) - The company hired by the Alaska Gas Producers Pipeline Team (AGPPT) to assess the Alaska and Mackenzie Valley pipeline routes to Alberta has opened an office in Yellowknife.

Anchorage-based VECO has been involved in mega-project construction, engineering and management since the late 1960s.

Its resume encompasses oil/gas, pipelines and terminals, power generation, and mining.

In Alaska, the company was involved in the multi-billion dollar Valdez oil spill clean-up and construction upgrades at the giant Red Dog mine.

The company's general contracting subsidiary, Norcon, last year designed and built upstream stations and terminals for Forest Oil's offshore oil drilling platform.

Veco was hired by the AGPPG to assess the economic and environmental viability of both the Alaska and Mackenzie Valley routes.

Veco Canada vice-president Helen Jacobs, who heads up the new Yellowknife office, said the firm views NWT as "the logical place to expand" over the next five to 10 years.

"What we offer is a fully integrated range of services -- from engineering design through project management that we tailor to the project and to our clients' needs," said Jacobs.

The company is staffing the Yellowknife office initially with three people but hopes to have a staff of 20 people in the city by the end of the year, she said.

Veco Canada has been involved in the gas patch in the NWT since the early 1990s, mainly building gas gathering lines and related facilities.

Clients in the Inuvik and Fort Liard areas include BP, Chevron Canada, and Purcell Energy.

Jacobs said the company currently has about 50 people on a Chevron project near Fort Liard.

The firm is looking closely at mining in NWT as an area in which to expand.

"It is something we are very much interested in."

That includes contract operations and maintenance management, similar to that at the Red Dog mine.

Jacobs describes the company's management joint venture at Red Dog as a "model in terms of a risk and reward partnership" with an aboriginal partner.

"We have been involved in three capital expansions of the mine as well as in operations and maintenance management for many years.

"We have been able to attract native people to projects like this and also to help them build their own expertise," said Jacobs.

"We believe what we have learned there can be applied very successfully here in NWT as well."