Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

INUVIK
Inuvik Gas has discovered its natural gas well may only have a year and a half left of supply remaining to support the town, despite having nine years remaining of its 20 year contract.

That information was given to stakeholders, the Town of Inuvik and the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) so they could stay up to date on the situation. Studies are being done on to determine exactly how much natural gas remains in the single well run by Ikhil Joint Ventures.

Mike Dever, senior vice-president and general manager of ATCO Midstream Ltd. which provides oversight to the project, did not want to confirm the amount of natural gas remaining until the reports came back.

"When we can finalize a number and it's a fairly accurate timeline. It's important to get that number," Dever said. "What we know is we have less gas than we thought and we're making sure we have long- and short-term strategies."

One of those short-term plans would be to have the power corporation switch to diesel generation from natural gas. The power corp. uses much of the natural gas and switching to 90 per cent diesel could buy Inuvik Gas three years of natural gas to develop a plan.

"What we're talking to Brendan (Bell, chair of NTPC) about is to extend the life of the well," Dever said. "We really want a long term plan for natural gas for the community and we're putting our effort into that."

Bell was not available for a comment at press time.

Inuvik Mayor Denny Rodgers announced the information at a Chamber of Commerce event on Sept. 30, but wants to reassure people that a year and a half of gas is only one scenario.

"We don't want people to go into panic mode," Rodgers said. "Our concern is Inuvik and the taxpayers. Our concern are the 87 per cent of Inuvik residents on natural gas."

One proposal for a long-term plan in Inuvik is to take advantage of the large natural gas reserves located just north of Inuvik. This could provide a stable long-term solution the town needs. Rodgers thinks one possibility would be to partner with Conoco-Phillips and explore the Parson's Lake Reserve.

"The number we're looking at is three years and that would give them time to find another well," Rodgers said.

Parson's Lake is located 72 km north of Inuvik and is one of three anchor fields for the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline. It is estimated to contain 2.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or enough to heat all of the homes in Canada for two years.

"We understand that there is a large gas reserve there and we want to put our efforts into that and work together," Dever said. "It's a scenario for sure and there's a lot of appetite of that with the stakeholders."

One short-term solution that Inuvik Gas is looking at is the five-day, back-up propane air system and the possibility of drilling another well to provide natural gas to Inuvik. The second well option would do two things: it would provide redundancy on the sole well currently in operation and would also allow Inuvik Gas to access the additional reserves that haven't been reached yet and could extend the amount of natural gas remaining.

Ikhil Joint Ventures, the operator for the wells and pipeline for Inuvik Gas, held a community meeting on Sept. 26 to hear environmental concerns about drilling another natural gas well this winter for Inuvik Gas. Only five people attended the meeting and none had concerns.

Ikhil will continue on to the next stage of submitting a project description to the Environmental Impact Screening Committee, which should be reviewed between Nov. 16 and 18. If Ikhil receives all the approvals, it would start drilling for the 2011-2012 winter season.

"We haven't made a decision on the second well, but we're keeping the permit process going," Dever said. "We have a single well and while we're near completing the back-up air propane system, the single well situation has risks and we want to mitigate those."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.