Stephan Burnett
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 05/04) - Enbridge Inc. says it is interested in playing a role in the Alaskan pipeline, the second company in less than a week to do so.

So far, Enbridge has been shut out of the potential Mackenzie Valley pipeline development.

Enbridge said in a press release issued Thursday that it is interested in becoming an equity partner in a consortium to build and operate a natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to the Canadian border.

Enbridge operates the longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system throughout Canada and the United States.

"Our view is this really doesn't change the basic dynamic. The Alaskan gas pipeline and the Mackenzie Valley pipeline are needed and will be needed in the North American markets," said Jim Rennie, Enbridge's manager of public affairs.

Other players see it differently.

If the Alaska pipeline is built first, there will be less capacity within the over-all pipeline system, Mackenzie Valley pipeline spokesperson Hart Searle said March 25.

"That would certainly put our project in jeopardy," said Searle.

One day after Imperial Oil's March 25 update on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline in Yellowknife, TransCanada Corporation announced it had renewed talks with the state of Alaska on the building of a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to the U.S. Midwest.

The initiative Enbridge took on Thursday is a first concrete step toward establishing an Alaskan pipeline, said Rennie.

"If an Alaska pipeline initiative is running in parallel with ours, then it could pose a threat to the commercial viability of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project by putting cost pressures on material and supplies, by impacting the availability of most-experienced contractors, and lastly, by impacting gas market demand as well as gas prices," said Searle.

"At the moment it's pretty much a producer-driven project. Our only part of the project is having liquids coming into our pipeline in Norman Wells," said Rennie.