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Two lines fine

Dual pipes may take Northern fuels south

Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 06/00) - If fuel prices remain stable and the community support high, there may be two pipelines flowing Northern gas south.

During an oil and gas conference at the Hay River Reserve, representatives from both Enbridge and TransCanada Pipelines agreed there is enough interest in the fossil fuels in Alaska and Northern Canada to drive two lines to the southern grid.

Brian McNulty, vice- president of northern development and regulatory affairs for TransCanada Transmission, said the company believes both projects can work.

"It all depends on when producers are ready to go and the market is stable and when the communities are ready to proceed with their projects."

Aboriginal Pipeline Working Group (APWG) co-chair Doug Cardinal said that here or in the Yukon, the First Nations will lead the charge in the project.

"We hear a lot of talk about the Alaska route, but that's all the politicians. It's the aboriginal groups that are driving this thing forward," Cardinal said.

He said while there may have been some good marketing and some regulatory approval to move the line south from Alaska through the Yukon, the approval is now too outdated to be useful.

"Those certificates in hand were approved in 1987 through a senate committee by President Jimmy Carter," he said. "Things are done substantially different today."

"They do have a certificate in hand, but there was never a final certificate issued."

APWG co-chair Dennis Nelner was pleased with the conference and looks forward to taking the project information to the people.

"There were some very good presentations from a wide sector of industry and First Nation perspectives," Nelner said.

He added that in 11 months they have worked hard to gain a lot of ground to get the project moving and are taking the show on the road.

"We want to get to all the communities before the Christmas break," he said.

Helping to get the information into the communities will be Harry Deneron, who started the project with the first meeting in Fort Liard last January.

Deneron was recently appointed as community consultation officer for the pipeline working group.

"In the past, a lot of the industries overlooked the small communities, for us, the small communities make the North," Deneron said.

"Any time they want us we'll be there."

This month, Deneron said the group will tour five communities in five days in the Sahtu, as well get into all the communities in the Deh Cho.

Sheetah Drilling president Greg Nyuli said he made some good contacts at the seminar and hopes to have his rigs up and drilling in the Deh Cho this winter.

"We had a good visit here with people we're going to be working with, that being Paramount," Nyuli said. "Things are looking very positive."

Sheetah has two rigs sitting in Hay River awaiting final environmental approval for drilling projects in Fort Liard and the Cameron Hills.

At the conference Nyuli met with the communities concerned and they have agreed to fast-track the approval to make the window to move the rigs in this winter. And the pipeline is just the tip of the iceberg, Deneron said.

"This project won't be the last."