This summer, Northern Transportation Company Ltd., will do just that.

NTCL marketing and traffic director Lynette Storoz said last week that plant modules, being assembled in NTCL's Hay River yard, will be loaded on to barges at the end of June or early July.

"We expect to be in Badami Aug. 1."

Badami is a marginal oil field east of Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. Once operational, the facility will feed oil to the Trans-Alaska pipeline which connects Prudhoe Bay with Valdez.

"Because it's marginal, it's not a major producer. The project looks to top up the capacity of the pipeline," Storoz said.

Logistically, BP Exploration Alaska determined that designing, engineering and assembling the plant in Canada means saving big bucks.

"The alliance formed by BP to develop Badami, plus new technology, means BP will be able to cut the cost in half," she said.

BP estimates the project will come in at around $300 million US, Storoz said.

"The Canadian fabrication -- the Badami plant designed and engineered by Calgary-based Colt Engineering then trucked to NTCL -- is only a small percentage of the $300 million US," Storoz said.

BP Alaska estimates a very small percentage of the cost of bringing Badami on-line will be spent in Canada.

Still, said Storoz, a small percentage of $300 million US is significant.

For 40 of NTCL's 300 employees, it means winter work. And there are about 40 NATCO staff from the company's Calgary offices in Hay River working on the plant. NATCO is another partner in the Badami alliance.

Though this is a big project for NTCL, the company has barged a similar oil processing plant down the Mackenzie to Norman Wells.

And after Badami, NTCL may be playing a part in the transporting of more oil processing plants, the company's president, Cameron Clement, said.

"Everybody in town is getting spinoffs from this," he said.

Clement said the Canadian route affords a wider window of opportunity.

And the north slope of Alaska has a shallow draft so NTCL barges can take the plant right up to shore. To accommodate an ocean barge, coming around Point Barrow, a 40-metre pier would have to be built.

Another advantage is the low Canadian dollar.

With the Canadian dollar trading below 70 cents against the US greenback, the costs of building the plant in Canada are very appealing.

NTCL is 100 per cent owned by NorTerra Inc. which is owned by the Inuvialuit Development Corporation, representing the Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic, and the Nunasi Corporation, representing the Inuit of Nunavut.