The oil and gas industry has returned to the Delta, bringing money and jobs and promise of economic growth.
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Mar 05/01) - Back in the 1970s, Inuvik was poised for a prosperous future.
Then the oil and gas boom busted when a predicted energy crisis failed to materialize, a Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline was shelved, and world oil prices collapsed.
Only now is the town now starting to regain its legs as the staging area and supply centre oil and gas development in the Beaufort-Delta region.
But over the last 18 months the boom has begun again -- as jobs and money flowed North once more.
The first big public show of it happened here last Monday, with the official opening of Akita/Equtak Rig 60.
Media from the North and south were dined, toured and taken on dog sled rides to help spread word that the NWT oil and gas patch is again open for business.
The message came with a clear condition -- this time Northern aboriginal groups will be in control.
"The former days are no longer here, where people are bypassed," said Inuvialuit Regional Corporation CEO Nellie Cournoyea.
She said the Inuvialuit worked 'day and night' over the last year and a half developing the terms and conditions for resource development in the region, terms and conditions she said will serve as a model for other regions.
Simplified, that package means paying up front for development rights and partnering with Inuvialuit-companies.
New way of business
The development of the resource being tapped by the Akita/Equtak rig serves as an example of the requirements of doing business in the Inuvialuit region.
Akita/Equtak is a partnership, 51 per cent owned by the Inuvialuit Development Corporation and 49 per cent owned by Calgary-based Akita Drilling. IDC bought into the partnership by investing $32 million in the construction of four purpose-built rigs that will probe the region.
Rig 60 is the first. The other three will go into operation next winter.
While the rig is drilling on Crown land, Petro-Canada was among three companies that last year paid a total $75.5 million in 'bonus payments' for rights to 306,714 of the 1.3 million hectares for which the Inuvialuit own surface and subsurface rights. Concession agreements signed by Petro Canada, Chevron Canada and Anderson Resources Ltd. included a royalty regime and an option for the Inuvialuit to buy a working interest of up to 25 per cent in any discovery.
Jobs for all
The most direct benefits of the return of industry come in terms of the jobs they create. Cournoyea said that between seismic work and exploratory drilling, every Inuvialuit beneficiary who wants a job today can get one.
Increased employment is something Tuktoyaktuk mayor Ernest Pokiak said he's seen in his community.
"We have quite a few people working on seismic, for Anderson Resources," said Pokiak. "Most of the contractors are quite busy. Everyone in the community is hoping the seismic program will detect something good."
Mackenzie-Delta MLA David Krutko said ultimately the goal is to have 100 per cent of the jobs associated with resource development held by northerners.
In order to achieve that level, he said far more has to be put into training and education.
That a Northern leader is even considering a 100 per cent Northern employment target is a sign of how far things have come since the last time the industry came calling.
