Mackenzie Valley Pipeline
| Mackenzie Valley Pipeline | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Country | Canada |
| General direction | north–south |
| From | Mackenzie Valley |
| Passes through | Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories |
| To | Alberta |
| General information | |
| Type | natural gas |
| Partners | Imperial Oil, The Aboriginal Pipeline Group, ConocoPhillips, Shell Canada, ExxonMobil |
| Construction started | 2010 |
| Expected | 2014 |
| Technical information | |
| Length | 758 mi (1,220 km) |
| Maximum discharge | 18.5 billion cubic meters per year |
The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline is a proposed project to transport natural gas from the Beaufort Sea through Canada's Northwest Territories to tie into gas pipelines in northern Alberta. The project was first proposed in the early 1970s, but was scrapped following an inquiry conducted by Justice Thomas Berger. The project was resurrected in 2004 with a new proposal to transport gas through the sensitive arctic tundra. Probabilistic estimates of hydrocarbons in the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea regions project that there are natural gas reserves of 1.9 trillion cubic metres (67×1012 cu ft).
The prospect of a pipeline bringing the natural gas to North American energy markets was originally analyzed in the 1970s with the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry. During that inquiry, Justice Berger heard testimony from diverse groups with an interest in the pipeline. The inquiry was notable for the voice it gave to the First Peoples whose traditional territory the pipeline would traverse. Berger stated that a pipeline should be postponed for 10 years, estimating that it would take this long for land claims to be settled and for First Peoples to be ready for the impact of such a project. Before the Trudeau government could act on Berger's report, it was defeated at the polls. The short-lived government of Joe Clark also failed to act on the report. When the Liberal government was re-elected, it approved construction of an oil pipeline from Norman Wells to Zama, Alberta, through Dehcho territory where land claims have yet to be settled.
Exploration continued at a steady pace and by 1995 there were over 1,900 wells above the 60th parallel. In addition, aboriginal groups settled numerous land claims. The Inuvialuit settled the first land claim in 1984, followed by the Sahtu and Gwichʼin. By the late 1990s, companies once again seriously considered a pipeline. The Canadian government sold mineral claim rights, leading to C$400 million in bids and over C$1 billion in work commitments.
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