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Gold/Mining/Energy : Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (32)	4/28/2005 5:58:46 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 570

Pipeline talks nearly done: Gov. Murkowski expects proposals soon for a gas pipeline from the North Slope juneauempire.com [I wouldn't hold my breath. These talks are taking a lot longer than he predicted. -Snow] By ANDREW PETTY JUNEAU EMPIRE Web posted April 28, 2005 Gov. Frank Murkowski on Wednesday told lawmakers they may soon have a gas pipeline proposal to consider, and it may take a special session to approve it. The governor did not give any dates for when negotiators would finalize their three proposals. But he said results will be ready for public review and lawmakers' consideration of contracts during a possible special session. "We stand on the brink of making the most important decision in our state's history," Murkowski told a joint meeting of the House and Senate resources committees. The proposals to build a North Slope gas delivery system are from a consortium of oil producers, Conoco/Phillips, ExxonMobil and BP, one from TransCanada Pipeline Co. and one from the Alaska Port Authority. The $20 billion project aims to build an underground pipeline to send natural gas from the North Slope through Canada and into the Midwestern states. The Alaska PortAuthority wants to build two pipelines to reach a refinery in Valdez to liquefy the gas and ship it to markets in Asia and along the West Coast. Because of confidentiality agreements, the governor could not reveal many details. Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom, R-Anchorage, cautioned the administration about involving the state in ownership of the pipeline. If gas prices were to drop below the cost of shipping, the state would be liable. "The risk in this is ... you're not going to generate any revenue until somewhere in the area of 2012 or 2014 when the gas is going to flow," Murkowski said. The administration and producers hope prices in the future will be around $6 to $7 per cubic feet. But if the rate is $2, it could make the project "the worst investment in history of Alaska," Murkowski said. A pipeline would be cheaper than moving the gas by ship or train, the governor said. Producers discovered 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the North Slope while searching for oil. They suspect another 250 trillion has not been discovered. Legislators wanted the administration to ensure Alaskans would benefit from the building of the pipeline. Tom Irwin, commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources, said 10,000 short-term local jobs would be created but many may require significant training. House Minority Leader Rep. Ethan Berkowitz of Anchorage thought it was unwise to let Mid America Pipeline Co. out of the negotiations. "We currently have no negations with Mid America. Mid America sent us a letter indicating they were not going to pursue the follow-up that they initiated (with TransCanada)," Murkowski said. "The governor fumbled his first, best opportunity to get the gas line up to point. Mid America indicated they would be ready to have gas moving by 2010," Berkowitz said. When the proposals are completed, the public will have a minimum of 30 days to comment on the drafts and then the Alaska Legislature will meet in a special session, possibly this summer, to add their statements. The administration takes the comments in consideration and returns to the negotiating table to pen the last draft. Then the Legislature can vote only "yes" or "no."

To: Snowshoe who wrote (32)	4/29/2005 10:40:10 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 570

Kakfwi unapologetic after pipeline delay decision Last updated Apr 29 2005 08:49 AM CDT CBC News north.cbc.ca YELLOWKNIFE – At least one aboriginal negotiator says he's willing to call Imperial Oil's bluff that it's going to put the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project on hold. [ Bluff or deja vue? We've been down this road before. - DPR ] The oil companies behind the proposed natural gas pipeline announced Thursday they were going to put engineering and preparation work for the $7 billion project on hold– though they will continue to negotiate through the regulatory process. Imperial Oil, the lead proponent of the project, says it won't resume until the company is able to come to agreements with aboriginal organizations about access to their land, and benefits for their people. Mike Yeager, a senior vice-president with Imperial Oil, says First Nations are simply asking for too much. "We're talking about something here that is many, many fold from what we were expecting and into the hundreds of millions of dollars," he said Thursday. But former N.W.T. premier Stephen Kakfwi, who's now chief negotiator for his home community of Fort Good Hope, is unapologetic about what he's asking for. Kakfwi says the company has to compensate aboriginal organizations not just as land owners but as governments in their own right. "Unless we do something today, all the oil and gas will be gone from our land and everybody will get rich except us," he says. Yeager says aboriginal people expect the 1,300-kilometre natural gas pipeline to provide them with enough income to address existing problems such as a chronic shortage of housing. He argues it's government that needs to address these social and economic issues, using the taxes and royalties the project will generate. Territory offers olive branch The territorial government is sounding more conciliatory, offering to bring the two sides together. Brendan Bell, the minister of industry, tourism and investment, calls the Imperial Oil decision a wake up call for the N.W.T. Bell says he understands Imperial's position and says he thinks the territorial government can help broker a deal on access agreements. "Governments are going to have to get involved, the federal government, our government, to work with the two parties," he say. "Of course, we're not privy to the negotiations but I think we need to sit down and find out where the holdups are and talk about coming up with a defined time frame and timeline for when these things can be resolved and what kinds of things should be in access agreements and those that shouldn't be in access agreements and move the bars." Imperial Oil has said it wants to see what it calls substantial progress in signing access agreements before moving on to public hearings on the project. The company is talking about offering a common access agreement to all aboriginal organizations to consider, rather than the piecemeal approach to agreements it has been pursuing until now. Regulatory process to be reviewed? The federal government's regulatory process has come under fire as part of Imperial's decision to delay the pipeline. The company expected to have hearings underway by now, but is still answering more than 1,200 questions submitted by Ottawa, aboriginal groups, and others as part of the environmental assessment. More questions are expected next month. "We are already months behind what our expectations were about how this would be carried out," says Mike Yeager. The delay is important to Imperial because the northern construction season is just three months long, and it would be in the dead of winter. Liseanne Forand, an assistant deputy minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, agrees there's a need for more co-ordination among government departments asking questions at this stage, and she's looking for ways to streamline the process. "But the bottom line to all of this really is we need to have a rigorous environmental assessment and regulatory process that all northerners and all Canadians will be able to count on in the end," says Forand, who's department oversees the process. Imperial Oil is also worried about how long it will take to get permits once the environmental assessment is done.

To: Snowshoe who wrote (32)	4/29/2005 10:44:57 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 570

Pipeline Work Halted By PATRICK BRETHOUR Thursday, April 28, 2005 Updated at 9:47 PM EST From Friday's Globe and Mail theglobeandmail.com Calgary — The backers of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline are facing down federal regulators and native bands, saying they are halting all engineering work on the $7-billion megaproject until they can secure concessions on mounting costs and delays. Imperial Oil Ltd., speaking for the five-member consortium, said work scheduled for this summer is being cancelled because of a vague regulatory process and demands for “hundreds of millions” of dollars in spending from the four aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories. As a result, Imperial said, it is not sure how much the project will actually cost, or how long it will take to build. “Right now, we don't have that certainty and confidence,” Imperial senior vice-president Michael Yeager said in a conference call with reporters and analysts. Planned field work to gather geo-technical data, engineering and preparations for construction contracting have been halted, with all the consortium's effort now focused on the regulatory process. “We are working night and day with 200 people to fix this,” Mr. Yeager said, referring to the pipeline delay. At least one oil patch observer said no one should make the mistake of thinking that Imperial will not cancel the project if it believes that the economics are unfavourable, “Imperial is a very hard-nosed operator,” said Wilf Gobert, vice-chairman at Peters & Co. Ltd. Any delay by Imperial could put the Mackenzie pipeline on ice for years if it lets the rival Alaska pipeline jump ahead in the race to bring northern gas to the United States, particularly as the regulatory process has pushed the Canadian project behind schedule. That would deal a sharp blow, both to the consortium's ambition to exploit natural gas in the Mackenzie Delta and the territory's hope to use the pipeline's construction to create jobs. That is precisely what happened 28 years ago, when concerns over unresolved native land claims led to a moratorium on development of the Mackenzie, with a crash in energy prices freezing plans until this decade. Aboriginal groups have pledged support for the project this time around, but the extent of their demands for so-called access fees threaten its viability, Mr. Gobert said. He said native bands are making unreasonable demands. “They're trying to hold out for it, in my mind, as a ransom.” A spokesman could not be reached for the Deh Cho, the only aboriginal group without a land claim agreement and whose negotiations with the federal government have been a serious hurdle for the Mackenzie project. The Globe and Mail reported this week that Imperial and consortium member Shell Canada Ltd. were concerned about the mounting costs of the project, including the rising tab for “access agreements” or the fees that the pipeline backers will pay and services they will provide to aboriginal bands. Mr. Yeager said the proposals from aboriginal groups far exceeds the amount and scope of what the companies deem to be related to the pipeline, saying the requests would cost hundreds of millions to meet. An Imperial spokesman said some bands are asking to be paid property taxes, which the companies are not obligated to do, and have requested that the consortium pay for housing. Imperial development executive Randy Ottenbreit said some bands have tried to tie their discussions with Ottawa over the sharing of resource revenue to negotiations with the consortium. The consortium is making several demands, including that: --The federal and territorial governments deal with any requests for social spending not directly related to the pipeline project. --Federal regulators outline a “clear, firm” review process. --A commitment to the original timelines in a June, 2002, agreement that would have seen hearings begin this spring. Dan Brien, spokesman for Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott, said regulatory issues are being worked on by all sides, but that he didn't know if the government would be willing to streamline the process, or change the timeline, to meet the consortium's demands. But he said difficulties are to be expected with any major project. “It's not great news, but it's a bump in the road.” With files from reporters Dave Ebner in Calgary and Simon Tuck in Ottawa

To: Snowshoe who wrote (32)	4/30/2005 10:56:19 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 570

Cost of land right-of-ways central to decision to halt work on pipeline canadaeast.com JAMES STEVENSON CALGARY (CP) - The decision to halt operational work on the $7-billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline in the Northwest Territories boils down to how much the project should pay for right-of-way access, the head of TransCanada Corp. said Friday. "The question is what is the value of right-of-way for a pipeline," chief executive Hal Kvisle said Friday following the large pipeline and energy company's annual meeting in Calgary. "What we're trying to do is move gas from Inuvik to Alberta and we think it should be done on the same economic basis that occurs in the rest of Canada," he said. "One of the points we have made to the federal government is there are many pressing social needs in the Territories - hospitals, education, dental care, many other things - and local communities have asked the pipeline project to provide all of these." "We don't think that's right. We think these are things that are matters between the federal government and the people that live there." In explaining the decision to shut down "project execution activities," Imperial Oil said Thursday that private and commercial negotiations between various groups and communities along the pipeline route were totalling "into the hundreds of millions of dollars." In a similar refrain, the chief executive of Shell Canada said Friday that a new approach is needed if the project is to proceed. "Believe me, it's not posturing," Shell chief executive Clive Mather said outside his company's annual meeting, also in Calgary. Imperial (TSX:IMO) and Shell (TSX:SHC) are joined in the pipeline consortium with international energy giants ExxonMobil and Texas-based ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP). The group has been working on the project for years and a major milestone was passed last October when the group filed their long-awaited regulatory applications for the project. But there has been little progress since, with the energy companies saying they are being hampered by things well beyond the responsibility of the project, like land-claims issues. Mather told Shell shareholders Friday that continuing to spend money to develop the proposed pipeline with no visible progress would be "irresponsible." The energy companies involved in the pipeline all say that the project has not been shelved, but rather delayed all engineering and preparatory work halted until these larger "foundation" issues are dealt with. "This decision was based on one thing - and one very important thing - and that is that we feel that this project is do-able," Imperial vice president Michael Yeager said Thursday. Imperial, which has lead the charge over recent years to get the pipeline built, called upon federal and territorial governments, as well as aboriginal groups to help resolve the issues. In Regina on Friday, Prime Minister Paul Martin said the issue wasn't a question of too much red tape involved in the regulatory process. "What we really do hope is that the discussions that are taking place with certain of the First Nations who are involved will be able to progress and that obviously we are working with the government of the Northwest Territories to ensure that that happens." The decision to halt work could be a major setback for the mega-project, which called for a pipeline stretching about 1,220 kilometres south from the Mackenzie Delta in N.W.T. to existing pipeline networks in northern Alberta. The pipeline is intended to meet the growing demand for natural gas as conventional supplies throughout North America continue to wane. It is also seen by many as a much-needed source of income and job creation in Canada's North. TransCanada, which has a small stake in the consortium, said Friday that other jurisdictions in Canada have ways to deal with right-of-way claims. "Inevitably no matter where we build pipe, there are some land owners that are unsatisfied with the compensation we offer," said Kvisle. "And there are tribunals and other processes in place that will achieve an arbitrated outcome for compensation in those circumstances." "That's the kind of thing that we're suggesting to the government that needs to be put in place, we have to have some economic benchmarks as to what do you pay for access." Kvisle said the pipeline consortium had hoped it could avoid most of these problems by giving the Aboriginal Pipeline Group a one-third stake, representing numerous N.W.T. aboriginal groups who support the pipeline. "The APG pipeline group is seen as a completely separate and distinct thing from getting right-of-way through the territories." One group that has opposed the pipeline plans is the Deh Cho First Nation. About 40 per cent of the proposed pipeline route is currently within Deh Cho lands, which cover virtually the entire southwest corner of the N.W.T. The Deh Cho have been attempting to get Ottawa to settle their outstanding land claim before the pipeline is developed and has taken the federal government to court over the impending environmental review process.

To: Snowshoe who wrote (32)	6/10/2005 9:17:36 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 570

No drop dead date for Mackenzie pipeline, says Shell's Clive Mather Bill Graveland Canadian Press Friday, June 10, 2005 canada.com CALGARY (CP) - Shell Canada Ltd. is still committed to proceeding with the $7-billion Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline in the Northwest Territories but not without clear guidelines from Ottawa, the energy giant's president and chief executive said Thursday. "Mackenzie Delta for us is a very, very important project and we are committed to doing it," Clive Mather told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. "But what we went to see is some unblocking of the regulatory processes so we can actually get this thing started again." Shell Canada (TSX:SHC), along with its partner Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO) are joined in the pipeline consortium with international energy giants ExxonMobil and Texas-based ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP). The group said in late April it was shutting down its "project execution activities," because private and commercial negotiations between various groups and aboriginal communities along the pipeline route were totalling "into the hundreds of millions of dollars." "We've had to stop the pre-work because simply we couldn't afford to carry on burning money at the rate we were," Mather said following his speech to the Calgary business group. The decision has at least got the attention of the federal government he said. "Ottawa has put additional resources on the case and they are working with us to try and move this thing forward," Mather said. The pipeline consortium has been working on the project for years and a major milestone was passed last October when the group filed their long-awaited regulatory applications for the project, which would ship natural gas from energy fields in the Far North to southern markets in Canada and the United States. But there has been little progress since, with the energy companies saying they are being hampered by things well beyond the responsibility of the project, like land-claims issues with native groups. "At the moment, there are many claims being made by First Nations through the length of the pipeline," he said. "We believe those fall legitimately to governments rather than to the economics of the project because if we overload the project the result is certain - it won't stand up economically and then it won't get done." Last month a second northern aboriginal group filed a lawsuit to try to stop hearings into the proposed pipeline. The planned pipeline would cut across about 100 kilometres of Dene Tha' traditional lands, and the native group says it has been ignored in the project's design and early regulatory process. The lawsuit seeks a judicial stay of hearings by the joint review panel until the Dene Tha' voice is heard. Mather said he expects to spend the summer talking to key stakeholders in the project to see if there is any way to resolve some of the outstanding issues. Earlier this month, Alberta's representative in Washington, D.C., Murray Smith, said he thought there was a 60-day window of opportunity to push the project forward. But Mather said it's not quite that simple. "I tend not to get stuck on specific windows," the Shell Canada CEO said. "I think we have to accept that this is urgent and so the sooner we get going the better." "We don't have a drop dead date. It is an important project but the economics would be enhanced if we could get started earlier than later." Shell Canada (TSX:SHC) is one of Canada's biggest energy companies, with major natural gas operations in Western Canada and off the East Coast, an oilsands business in northern Alberta and a national network of Shell-branded gasoline stations. The company employed 4,000 people at the end of last year and generated revenues of $11.3 billion and profits of nearly $1.3 billion in 2004. In trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, Shell Canada shares rose $2.51 to close at $93.60, a gain of nearly 2.8 per cent. © The Canadian Press 2005