Quote:
“I think we look forward a little more optimistically because I don’t think anyone would be more aware than us of the challenges of sustaining gas production in Alberta,” he said.
It is arrogant when I see this, and mentally put it along side what MGP proponents in their office in Inuvik explained about the gas going to fuel the tar sands: "It is not up to our control as producers to determine who buys it on a free market".
Perhaps since Imperial has been the prime investor up until now, the other corporations stepping up now haven't got the script down yet. You are supposed to say that the gas needs to be delivered to market, not to the Albertan market. They'll learn quick, if they are serious about joining further into the MGP in a major way.
You can decide which of these statements is arrogant, and which is simply nonsense. Either way: To slow down the tar sands, kill the Mackenzie Gas Project for good. And what a lovely link it is. Destroy the Mackenzie Valley in order to destroy more land in Alberta? "Are you really that insane? The original General Custer was exactly that insane." --Frank T'Seleie, Fort Good Hope. 1975
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TransCanada may take larger role in Mackenzie project
By Jon Harding
CALGARY -- TransCanada Corp., a partner in the beleaguered $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas Project, is not ruling out taking a larger role in the project, building the $7-billion main-line itself and operating the trunk like any other regulated Canadian pipeline.
Hal Kvisle, TransCanada’s CEO, also said on a conference call the project is viable in TransCanada’s eyes.
“I think we look forward a little more optimistically because I don’t think anyone would be more aware than us of the challenges of sustaining gas production in Alberta,” he said.
“We see roughly flat-line (natural gas) production in Alberta and significant growth in demand, which sets the stage for a higher price.
“We frankly see a similar scenario unfolding all the way across North America -- setting the stage for higher prices and demand on both the liquefied natural gas and northern gas (fronts). That would be the fundamental reason we remain enthused about the project.”
The Mackenzie pipeline has been mired by rising costs, lengthy regulatory delays and issues with aboriginal communities along the pipeline’s proposed path through the Northwest Territories to Alberta.
Producers Imperial Oil Ltd., Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC won’t make their final investment decisions on the project until receiving regulatory approval from the National Energy Board, due late next year, and until talks end with Ottawa over the project’s fiscal.
The other partner in the project, the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, an aboriginal enterprise, has so far been financially backed by TransCanada.
Mr. Kvisle was asked on a conference call yesterday if TransCanada would be prepared to take a more prominent role in the project if the economics of building it and operating it don’t work for the four producers — whose rate-of-return expectations could exceed those of a pipeline company.
“All I would say is the partners in the project are examining every alternative to come up with a toll that makes it attractive to the producers,” Mr. Kvisle said.
“We’re discussing a whole range of different things and TransCanada has always been willing to contribute as best it can. We have a lot of construction expertise in building pipelines, we have a lot of cold weather expertise and a very good working relationship with the producers and the APG. We’re all working together to bring this project to fruition and that’s all I can say.”
Photo: Hal Kvisle, CEO, TransCanada. (Mikael Kjellstrom/National Post)
