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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Some big new players may be entering the NWT exploration industry as six parcels of land in the Canol shale oil deposit in the Central Mackenzie Valley become available for exploration on Sept. 17, according to Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay.

Of the new parcels that went up for bid this spring, four are located entirely in the Gwich'in Settlement Region, - North of the areas being explored by corporations such as ConocoPhillips, Shell Canada, Imperial Oil and Husky.

"I do believe that there will be some other companies that currently aren't working in the NWT or have holdings in the NWT interested in those parcels," Ramsay told News/North on July 25, but declined to name which corporations he has spoken with. "They're big companies and their appearance in the NWT would certainly signal that this is the real deal."

The six parcels represent approximately 460,000 hectares of land. Bid proposals must start at least $1 million.

Ramsay met with industry and government representatives during the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Annual Summit, held in Anchorage, Alaska, from July 14 to 18.

While delivering the message that the NWT is "open for business," he appealed for industry partners to help develop infrastructure to access the territory's undeveloped oil and gas reserves.

"Obviously there has to be some more drilling. (Companies) have to get a better understanding of what's in the ground, but by all accounts there's a tremendous amount of oil and gas in the ground west of Norman Wells and Tulita and it does extend farther North into the K'asho Got'ine district near Fort Good Hope and even, perhaps, into the Gwich'in settlement region, which is really exciting for us because that region in and around Inuvik has been stagnant economically," Ramsay said.."It is going to provide opportunities for that economic activity (around Norman Wells and Tulita) to move farther North."

The emerging Inuvik-to-Tuktoyaktuk highway and a proposed 2014-15 winter road extension that would link the Dempster Highway with Fort Good Hope, running almost the length of the Mackenzie Valley in winter, are examples Ramsay pointed to of infrastructure projects being undertaken by the GNWT to welcome further development.

"I think it's a strong signal to industry that we're serious about developing resources here," he said, adding all-weather roads are also part of his long-term vision. "We're serious about giving them opportunities to access those resources."

During the summit, Ramsay met with officials from the Alberta, Yukon and Alaska governments to discuss possibilities for an oil pipeline through the NWT to transport Alberta oil and NWT oil to the coast.

"It makes sense from a regional perspective to get all the players in the same room and talk about how everybody could benefit from a pipeline routed North and then west," he said. "One of the options, obviously, is to run oil North into the NWT, get it close to Inuvik and over through the Yukon and into Alaska to the trans-Alaska pipeline system that's currently operating at less than one-third capacity. ... The critical point to all of this is it would give us a way to get oil out of the NWT."

Ramsay said the option to run a pipeline to Tuktoyaktuk to reach a deepwater port on the coast of the Beaufort Sea was also discussed.

"We've got stranded resources and at the end of the day we've got a population to look after, people to put through school, and we need to be developing our resources so that we have money to operate our government, we have money to provide the programs and services our people are demanding," he said. "We can't afford to wait. I think we have to be aggressive and we have to get out and get after it because if we don't other people will."

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