SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - It's come to that time of the year again.

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada is asking companies to nominate parcels of land within the Central Mackenzie Valley and the Beaufort Sea/Mackenzie Delta region for future oil and gas exploration.

Once - or rather, if - parcels are nominated by Feb. 1, INAC will then issue a call for bids on those parcels.

The history of bids in recent years has been checkered.

The year 2008 saw BP's historic $1.2 billion bid on a parcel in the Beaufort Sea, but the following year saw not a single parcel put up for nomination.

Last year was an improvement, with MGM Energy securing five exploration licences, valued at $8 million, to explore in the Central Mackenzie Valley, while Chevron Canada won the right to explore one parcel in the Beaufort Sea.

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