Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Mar 05/99) - Pipeline workers are now about seven or eight kilometres from the Ikhil gas site and are close to finishing the pilings for the overland crossing at Douglas Creek, according to Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation chair Russell Newmark.

"In four or five days they should be at Ikhil," he told the Drum March 1.

"Then they'll have the gathering lines to do and we have the facilities coming in and basically everything is on schedule."

There are two well sites at the Ikhil site, about 50 kilometres northeast of Inuvik, and gathering lines are basically above-ground pipelines that connect what Newmark calls the J-35 and K-35 well sites to the main pipeline at the main facility pad.

At the facility pad, there are six modules to process the gas on-site. The gas is 99.5 per cent methane so Newmark says there is not much impurity.

"The only two things we really have to do is dry it a bit and take out whatever bit of water there is in it and change the pressure, lower the pressure so the gas cools."

The number of workers is starting to wind down after a peak where about 125 people were involved with the project.

The Power Corporation is set to be the first customer to receive natural gas, and according to a sales agreement, Inuvik Gas will supply the electric company by July 1.

The next priorities are both Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Samuel Hearne schools, which Inuvik Gas manager Lyle Neis says will have access to natural gas by Aug. 1.

Homes along the route of the distribution system will have access to the gas sooner than others, but everyone in Inuvik will have access by Sept. 15 at the absolute latest, Neis says.

Meetings are ongoing in advance of inviting bids on the distribution system contract.

"Work on the distribution system will begin in June, with disturbances to private and public property kept to a minimum," Neis says.

"We'll be working closely with the Town of Inuvik to make sure streets and roads are kept safe during construction."

The distribution system will be buried under and along the shoulders of the streets.

Distribution system workers will install metal standpipe to homes and businesses to connect them to gas mains.

Once residents have the necessary equipment ready inside their homes, workers will be able to install a pressure regulator and meter outside their homes.

"Everything's going pretty much on schedule. And there's been a huge amount of work for local contractors and a lot of employment," says Newmark.