.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

INUVIK - Calgary-based natural gas company ATCO Midstream has started its move to the North with the recent purchase of Enbridge-owned IPL Holdings, replacing it as the third member of the Ikhil Joint Venture (IJV).

The move joins ATCO with IJV partners AltaGas Utility Group Inc. and the Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation, and gives ATCO one-third of the shares in Inuvik Gas Ltd.

As part of the IJV, ATCO has become a member of the consortium that owns the Ikhil pipeline, built in 1999, which transports gas produced by two wells 50 km north of Inuvik to more than 800 customers in the town.

"We'd been looking in the North for a long time for opportunities," said Kevin Cumming, president of ATCO Midstream. "It's an area that we see (as having) lots of future growth prospects - especially if the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline goes through."

Should the pipeline go forward, ATCO will definitely look at what role a midstream company like theirs could play in the future there, said Cumming.

The term "midstream" itself usually refers to companies involved in the transportation, processing and storage of gas and oil. As the name implies, "midstream" is the mid-point between upstream gas work - exploration and production - and downstream gas work - refining, selling and distribution.

ATCO Midstream operates under the ATCO Group umbrella, which is based in Alberta and operates worldwide with assets of about $8.5 billion. The company announced its purchase of longtime Inuvik Gas member IPL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enbridge Inc., without giving financial details of the deal, in November.

"We're a company that has a great reputation for operations and working with our partners very closely," said Cumming.

"We look forward to doing that here as well and bringing any expertise we can to the assets to try and make them preform as good as we can," he said.

Representatives from joint venture partners Inuvialuit Petroleum and AltaGas both said they look forward to the change, as well.

"We were pleased with Enbridge as a partner and we're quite pleased with ATCO," said Gerry Roy, who sits on the Inuvik Gas management committee for the Inuvialuit Regional Corp., parent of Inuvialuit Petroleum.

"(ATCO) has some expertise they can bring to (Inuvik Gas). Obviously we look forward to that kind of a contribution," he said.

Both AltaGas and the Inuvialuit have worked with ATCO Midstream, or other companies in the ATCO Group before to much success, and expect business to continue smoothly and as usual.

"We know the ATCO people, we like the ATCO people, we enjoy doing business with them and we're happy for them to become partners of ours up in Inuvik, said Patricia Newson, CEO of AltaGas Utility Group.

She said she doesn't expect the strategy for Inuvik Gas to change much with ATCO joining the group.

"ATCO coming in won't make a drastic change to that project. It will unfold based on demand from the people of the town of Inuvik," she said.