Inuvik (June 30/03) - The busiest drilling company in the territory expects to be a lot busier in the wake of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group funding deal.

But that probably won't happen next winter, said Rob Hunt of Calgary-based Akita Drilling.

"We won't see an immediate increase in activity because the industry always plans a full year ahead," he said.

The APG announcement and subsequent filing of the PIP (Preliminary Information Package) by the producers will "almost certainly" fuel confidence for following seasons, however.

"This will help rebuild momentum for the pipeline and provide a boost for the industry," he said.

"Now all we need is more land sales (oil/gas leases) to bring more companies to the table," he said.

"Land sales drive the business. Virtually all of the land in the Mackenzie Delta has been spoken for, but not in the Sahtu and the Deh Cho and the Gwich'in."

Akita Equitak Drilling of Inuvik, a joint venture with the Inuvialuit Development Corporation, was the drill contractor on one of the winter's bigger gas finds.

The North Langley K-30, northwest of Inuvik, hit commercial quantities of gas in late April.

The well is in the Niglintgak field, one of the three anchor fields driving the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project.

The K-30 well is owned jointly by Chevron, BP Canada Energy, and Burlington Resources.

Chevron Canada is the operator.

Akita is also a partner in Akita/Sahcho Drilling in Norman Wells and Akita/Sahtu Drilling in Fort Liard.

The company owns 36 rigs and had seven working in the NWT over the winter season: two in the Delta, one in the Sahtu and four in Fort Liard.

Through its joint ventures, the company does about 90 per cent of the drilling in the territory, said Hunt.

Last season, Akita had rigs on Chevron, CNRL (Canadian Natural Resources), PetroCanada and Anadarko sites.

"We did a quite a number of wells for Anadarko in Fort Liard, with three different rigs."

Drilling activity was down in the Delta over the winter season, but the Sahtu and Fort Liard regions were busier.

GNWT industry tracker Robert Redshaw said the season went pretty well the way it was expected.

The Deh Cho was busy again after a flat 2002 winter season.

"There was a lot of work done in Fort Liard and Colville Lake areas, but there was less activity in the Delta," he said.

One reason was the large amount of seismic work done in 2002.

"Companies are still assessing that work and selecting drill targets for upcoming seasons."

Anadarko is still working in Fort Liard but otherwise drilling is shut down now until next December or January.

"It's still too early to predict what is going to happen next winter," said Redshaw.

"We won't really know in any detail what the companies are planning for another two or three months."

The GNWT estimates that $150-$180 million was spent on oil and gas exploration over the winter, with about 900 workers employed.