Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 30/98) - It's a Northern resource developed exclusively for Northerners.

The $23-million Ikhil natural gas project will offer big benefits for Inuvik, Bob Stepan, with Enbridge's Northern natural gas development division, said.

"A community development can take place. You can develop a distribution system in the North," he said.

The goal is to "capture 85 per cent of the (Inuvik's) heating market in the first two years."

Stepan spoke last Wednesday at the NWT Chamber of Mines' annual Geoscience Forum. His presentation was part of the forum's first-ever session on oil and gas.

Energy from the Ikhil project, the first commercial natural gas development north of the Arctic Circle, is scheduled to be flowing through Inuvik by September of next year.

The projects' partners are the Inuvialuit Petroleum Corp., AltaGas Services Inc. and Enbridge (formerly IPL). Gas reserves are estimated at 20 years.

The system will offer 15-20 per cent savings over diesel. The transmission line from Ikhil's two wells stretches 50 kilometres.

That translates into $500 to $2,000 in annual heating costs per customer, Stepan said.

Ikhil will also pump $1 million a year directly in the Delta community's economy, Stepan said.

He also said this project could spark other resource development.

In fact, there is a trend of increased gas and oil exploration in the NWT, says Giles Morrell, senior petroleum geologist with the federal government's Northern oil and gas directorate.

This winter, resource companies will drill seven new wells and re-enter five existing wells in the Mackenzie Valley, Morrell, who also spoke at the forum, said.

"Companies are making progress," he said.

Earlier this year, Ranger Oil announced a gas discovery at their P-66A well, near Fort Liard. The resource was estimated at 200 billion cubic feet, possibly as much as 600 billion cubic feet, making it similar to Amoco's Pointed Mountain field nearby.

"There is reason to hope that the return of the petroleum exploration to the North is based on robust economics and is for the long term."

This was the Geoscience Forum's 26th edition. It is the largest conference in the NWT, NWT Chamber of Mines executive director Mike Vaydik said.

With the oil and gas, day one was dubbed Carbon Day -- diamond presentations were made Wednesday.

Other sessions focused on economic development and environmental topics.