Inuvik to host oil and gas trade show
Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Apr 27/01) - The first Inuvik Petroleum Show is getting a lot of attention.
"The phone has just been ringing off the hook," said conference co-ordinator Patricia Black. "It's just great to see so much interest in what's happening here in the Beaufort Delta."
The Midnight Sun Recreation Complex will host the event June 21-22. A conference and a trade exhibition will run both days.
Black said there's room for 50 exhibitors at the trade show, but that this may be expanded since half the spots have sold out already. About 50 people have registered for the conference so far, with about 150-200 expected to attend.
Many oil and gas firms will be represented at the trade show, but Black said many local companies have also expressed interest in getting a piece of the pie.
"We want to highlight our local companies are much as we can," said Black, who began working on the project in late February.
Inuvik Mayor Peter Clarkson said he broached the idea of this kind of conference during a trip to Calgary late last year, and received a positive response.
"We had the first meeting with the Inuvialuit in December, and then we had a steering committee meeting in January," Clarkson said.
"It took a while to get approval from council and then to hire Patty."
The mayor said the first day of the conference will consist of a review of oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort Delta area this past winter, as well as how employment and training went.
"We'll look at how things went and what were some of the successes and what were some of the challenges," he said.
Discussion groups will then make recommendations for next year.
"The second day, we'll look at the pipeline, so just an overview of the pipeline project, the regulatory process, where things are at, what groups are working on it," Clarkson said.
Unique approach
Black said the conference will stand out from others, in part because it's being held in the North, and partly because of the discussion format.
"Most of the other conferences are just kind of one-way communication. The neat thing about this is we're using a discussion format with all the sessions," Black said.
"Community members can kind of plan with industry and with municipal representation," she said.
"It's planning as a community for what's coming ahead. And that's the exciting part of it."
Clarkson said the show could become an annual event, depending on how things go this June. He said industry and community representatives are looking forward to the show.
"The vision we had, it would bring all these people together, and I think the vision is becoming a reality."
