Fort Liard (Aug 14/06) - Petroleum exploration around Fort Liard could soon get new life after a vote of support from the Dehcho First Nations.

Leaders from around the region approved the idea of having more lands opened to oil and gas drilling in the area at a meeting in Fort Simpson last week.

Andarko Canada is hoping to hear soon that there will be more land opening up to exploration around Fort Liard, where there are already a number of producing wells. - photo courtesy of Anadarko Canada

Approval from the neighbouring communities of Trout Lake and Nahanni Butte needed to be granted before the decision could be made.

"Both communities determined that the proposed exploration would not impact their traditional lands," stated the press release.

While attending the leadership meetings, Acho Dene Koe First Nation Chief, Harry Deneron, said his job was to make other Deh Cho communities aware of the exploration potential.

"We are at the stage where we now see the scope of it," said Deneron.

Deneron took over as chief last summer after running on a pro-exploration platform. He first brought up the topic of renewed exploration in February.

"It's been a lengthy process," he said.

In Trout Lake, acting band manager Rebecca Jumbo, said the community recognizes Fort Liard's right to open up more exploration.

She said it was important to reserve the right to protect its own surrounding territory.

"As long as it's not within our protected area of Trout Lake," Jumbo said she's fine with it.

A final decision to open up the new land will come from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

Any exploration licences would come through INAC and Minister Jim Prentice, said Andy Graw, the department's manager of petroleum development for the NWT.

"No decision has been made," he said. "It's the minister's decision."

Sources in a report published in the Globe and Mail, however, indicate such a move could come as soon as this month. The article also states that two parcels of land could be awarded as early as January.

New prospective lands to explore could get Anadarko Canada back in the Fort Liard area.

The company had drilled 12 wells and spent approximately $150 million in the region.

At one time it had planned to build a gas gathering system in the Fort Liard area for two of its three wells. It put the project on hold because of the lack of new lands in the area to fuel future expansion of reserves, said Nadine Barber, spokesperson for Anadarko.

The gathering system would link the two gas wells to a pipeline running south to Fort Nelson, B.C.

"We need land to fully understand what is under the ground," she said. "Geology doesn't stop at the border."