Interviewed yesterday on Canada's show, CTV NewsQuestion Period, Canadian Environment Minister, Jim Prentice predicted that a natural gas pipeline from Canada's McKenzie River valley an the Arctic regions may begin as soon as the end of 2009:Environment Minister Jim Prentice says he is "optimistic" that work on the controversial Mackenzie Gas Project, which proposes building a pipeline to deliver northern natural gas to Canadian and U.S. markets, will begin soon after numerous delays for environmental and community assessments.
The project was first proposed in 2001 by a consortium of oil producers that includes Imperial Oil, ExxonMobil Corp., Shell Canada and ConocoPhillips.
The 1,220-kilometre pipeline would ship natural gas through the Mackenzie Valley in the Northwest Territories from northern offshore gas fields, but the project has been bogged down by community and environmental consultations.
Prentice went on to say that Alaska's pipeline project into Canada will have to wait until the producer consortium's project is done, if not longer:
He also indicated that a much talked-about Alaska pipeline is much further behind, with environmental, regulatory and other consultations yet to be done.
That's the pipeline Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin likes to tell people she is responsible for already having begun.