Erika Sherk
Northern News Services
Monday, July 9, 2007

INUVIK - Massive pieces of equipment will travel to Inuvik from international oceans if the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project goes ahead, according to the revised project plans.

Imperial Oil - the lead proponent of the project - filed a revised figure in May for what they estimated the project would cost.

Mackenzie Gas Project Gwich'in community liaison Grace Blake points to the area near Inuvik where a construction camp will be built. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

The cost estimate jumped from the original $7.5 billion planned in 2005 to 16.2 billion.

Even so, work went into preventing cost from rising even higher, said Pius Rolheiser, public affairs officer for Imperial Oil.

"We made some adjustments and refinements to project design," he said, "to help us address these upward cost measures."

Imperial's efforts to keep costs down included changes to the plans for the projects around Inuvik.

The original plan involved setting up a camp and a plant on Vale Island in Hay River to assemble the modules needed for a natural gas processing plant in Inuvik.

Hay River residents fought against the suggestion in hearings and town council meetings, it was reported.

"It was an example of things where communities said 'we'd like you to look for different ways of doing this," said Rolheiser.

Whereas before, smaller modules would have been assembled in Hay River and then brought by truck to Inuvik, now the modules will come straight from their place of creation. Although specifics points of origin for materials were not provided, indications are they would travel from outside North America to Inuvik, said Rolheiser.

The modules can be compared to giant "Lego blocks," said Inuvik mayor Derek Lindsay. They will be put together to create the gas plant.

Ocean-going vessels will transfer the modules to river barges, he said. Potential transfer spots are the coast of Herschel Island in the Yukon, or Tuktoyaktuk, NWT.

There will be fewer of them - a maximum of four compared to the original plan of numerous smaller ones.

The modules will be significantly larger, though - up to 4,000 tons larger, according to the application made to the National Energy Board.

Different infrastructure and equipment will be needed in Inuvik to deal with the massive modules, according to Imperial's application. A new barge landing site south of Inuvik will be needed for the river barges to dock at, "specialized wheeled equipment" to haul the modules from the landing site to the Inuvik gas facility, and a storage spot set up to keep the modules over the winter will also be constructed.

Two extra roads would also have to be built - one 2.8 kilometre all-weather road and one 22 kilometre ice road, according to the application.

"I'm elated," said Lindsay, of the proposed changes, "I believe it will be much better for our economic growth."

"I believe there will be a lot more barging, a lot more usage of local contractors."

Rolheiser seconded that thought.

"Wherever possible our preference would be to use Northern contractors," he said.

There are certainly still issues to be worked out, said Lindsay.

The area that is being considered for the road leading from the landing site, on the other side of Juk Park, is "kind of swampy" according to Lindsay.

"I told Imperial Oil they should probably get their people up here to look at it," he said.

The proposed barge landing site itself is upriver from Inuvik's water intake, said Lindsay, which would also have to be considered. Such details will have to be worked out, he said, but he said that the project would be a great thing for Inuvik.

"We'll see a lot of heavy activity around the community for at least five years," he said.