Imperial Oil Ltd., the Mackenzie Valley pipeline consortium’s lead partner, is likely to begin regulatory filings by this summer, and natural gas could flow from the long-awaited pipe by 2009, an executive said Monday. Imperial’s news mirrors that of another consortium partner, ConocoPhillips, which last week said it, too, expected applications to be filed by this summer (see Daily GPI, March 3).

The C$3 billion (US$2.3 billion) Arctic gas line has been on the drawing board for several years, but consortium partners are now laying the groundwork to move forward, said Randy Ottenbreit, Imperial’s development executive in charge of the northern pipe. He also dismissed claims that the Canadian government would delay the project because of environmental concerns.

“My sense is that it has the potential to (delay the pipeline), but it’s probably too early to determine that because it may be that there are some steps in some of the work after the filing that could take place to recover some time,” Ottenbreit said.

The complex regulatory process involves making separate applications to develop three onshore gas fields, a gathering system and the pipeline from the Mackenzie Delta to connect with existing pipelines in northern Alberta. The proposal calls for a 30-inch pipeline with a 1.2 Bcf/d capacity that could be expanded to 1.9 Bcf/d.

Last week, John Efford, Canada’s natural resources minister, warned that the proposed pipeline could face delays because of the stakeholder meetings involved and environmental concerns. However, Ottenbreit said a decision by the regulatory board in the Mackenzie Valley region to undertake stakeholder hearings before a full environmental impact statement may be completed within only a few months. Results from the stakeholder hearings are expected in May.

“I don’t foresee that delaying filing beyond this year,” Ottenbreit said.

Along with Imperial and ConocoPhillips, other consortium partners are Shell Canada Ltd., ExxonMobil Corp. and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

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