Tuktoyaktuk (Oct 06/03) - The rigs have been barged up the Mackenzie River and offloaded at Tuktoyaktuk. Oil and gas giant Encana has moved into the Delta.

Billing itself as the world's largest independent oil and gas company, Encana boasts $30 billion in enterprise value.

The exploration play -- Encana's first in the Delta --will take place this winter at Richard's Island, near Tuktoyaktuk.

"This is exploration in its truest form," said Encana spokesman Alan Boras, adding the well will be drilled to a depth of 3,000 to 3,500 metres.

Akita Equitak will punch the hole for the Encana partnership, which will also involve Anadarko Petroleum Co. and Conoco Phillips.

Akita Equitak will also perform another play this winter at Swimming Point near Inuvik on behalf of the Mackenzie Delta partnership involving Chevron Canada, BP and Burlington Resources.

A $50 million investment

All told, the two projects are an investment worth close to $50 million.

Akita Equitak is a partnership between Akita Drilling and the Inuvialuit Development Corporation.

Partnerships between hydrocarbon companies operating within frontier exploration areas are normal, used as a means to split capital risk.

Over the past three years, Akita Equitak has drilled seven wells and to date, two have been successful. That's par for the course in a frontier exploration area, says Akita president Rob Hunt.

Drilling operations directly employ between 70 to 75 people, with aboriginal people comprising 50 to 60 per cent of Akita Equitak's workforce.

Work will get underway on infrastructure in December.

Encana will hire local contractors to build the ice road, a rig-site ice pad and a camp on Richard's Island while the ramp-up for the Mackenzie Valley partnership's Swimming Point punch will follow a similar structure.

"The whole project, everything in the Delta, is ice dependent. A big part of the project is putting the ice in every year," said Hunt.

Work on the ice road is expected to be complete by December with equipment on the move by January.

"If it's colder it could be sooner and if it's not cold it could be delayed," said Hunt.

"The biggest challenge is logistics: the cold, the dark, the short seasons," he said.