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INUVIK
Inuvik Gas Ltd.'s $5-million emergency propane air system, which the company plans to have in place this winter, will be paid for by as-of-yet undetermined rate increases to its customers, according to an ATCO Midstream spokesperson.

The system will be similar to the one put in place in Norman Wells after it declared a state of emergency earlier this year after a pipeline delivering fuel to the community sprung a leak and went out of commission, except that it will be buried underground and capable of running in extremely cold temperatures.

"It's a much newer version with newer technology," said Mike Dever, senior vice-president and general manager of ATCO Midstream, which manages Inuvik Gas Ltd.

The move comes after a preliminary reservoir study showed that the Ikhil gas pool, located approximately 50 km northwest of Inuvik, has less gas remaining than previously thought.

Inuvik Gas is currently in year 11 of its 20-year contract, but estimates it will run out of gas sometime between 2014 and 2018.

Dever said the company will have a more concrete timeline in early September, once it completes work at the gas pool.

"We're dealing with geology, Mother Nature, so we'll come up with our best bet, but there will always be a little bit of uncertainty with how long the reserves will last," he said.

In the unlikely event that there is a natural gas outage, the five-day back-up system will kick in to provide an uninterrupted energy supply.

After that, liquid propane would have to be brought in by truck or barge.

Mayor Denny Rodgers said town officials will meet with the GNWT, the NWT Power Corporation and Inuvik Gas in September to discuss what they would do during ice freeze-up and break-up, when access by truck and barge is blocked.

"These are all worst case scenarios," Rodgers said.

Dever said that flying propane into Inuvik would be difficult, but its something they will have to discuss.

"We wouldn't want to rely on flying propane in," he said.

Officials on all sides are quick to point out that, in all likelihood, the Ikhil gas pool will continue to supply natural gas until a long-term solution is put in place.

"We expect service as usual for Inuvik Gas customers this winter," wrote Meigan McDonald, an ATCO Midstream spokesperson, in an e-mailed statement. Inuvik Gas serves 87 per cent of Inuvik households.

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