The Territories: Developments

[Airboy]

I will check the drawings when I can and let you know. As for photos Until i get back up i will try to get a contact up there to get some.

[amor de cosmos]

The Northwest Territories builds for its future
Julius Melnitzer | April 30, 2014 6:16 AM ET

The Northwest Territories has announced a 10-year, $600-million infrastructure upgrade plan to attract more resource development to the region. The building plans follow on “devolution” — Ottawa’s decision to give the Territories more powers and more responsibilities on how to govern itself.

But the Territories cannot expect special treatment from potential investors: resource companies will be evaluating the region’s prospects using criteria similar to the ones used to assess the viability of development in remote areas abroad, lawyers say.

“The checklist would be very much the same as it would be for places like Afghanistan or Brazil,” says Tom Valentine in Norton Rose Fulbright LLP’s Calgary office, who advises clients on frontier development around the world.

Infrastructure, Mr. Valentine cautions, is not the only, albeit an important, consideration for resource companies.

Indeed, the fundamental driver in the decision-making process is the resource base. “If you don’t have it in the ground, there won’t be any investment no matter what the territorial government does,” Mr. Valentine said. “Fortunately, using a CAPP [Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers] analysis, resource plays in the territory are becoming more attractive, particularly with respect to unconventional gas.”

Infrastructure and access to markets does, however, rank as the second most important focus. Currently, for example, investors prefer the Gulf of Mexico to British Columbia for LNG investment, largely because of the more advanced infrastructure in the U.S.

“The forward-looking approach of the territorial government is encouraging, as is the fact that the challenges associated with infrastructure in the Northwest Territories are lessening as technology develops with the passage of time,” Mr. Valentine said.

The territory’s geography, which does not demand a host of high-altitude crossings for roads and pipelines, is also advantageous for transportation infrastructure development.

The third criterion engages the fiscal regime.

“Even wonderfully attractive geology and good infrastructure and access won’t cut it if the fiscal regime is too onerous,” Mr. Valentine said. “But right now, I’m not sure the industry has a good enough handle on what the fiscal toolbox will look like.”

http://business.financialpost.com/20...or-its-future/

[Chadillaccc]

N.W.T. to stay the course on fracking, despite report
'It’s not an exact science, but it can be managed,' says environment and natural resources minister

The Northwest Territories government isn't changing its approach to hydraulic fracturing, despite a panel of experts saying not enough is known about the environmental effects of the controversial practice.

A study commission by Environment Canada and released last week concluded research around hydraulic fracturing is neither detailed enough nor conclusive.

The report comes just as the N.W.T. government is allowing the first horizontal drilling and fracking projects in the territory to proceed with the minimum environmental review required by law.

Michael Miltenberger is N.W.T.’s minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

"We're in, to a certain extent, the risk and risk management business as we balance out the need for an economic base at the same time as protecting the environment,” he says. “We believe we can do those together.”

ConocoPhillips was the first company to drill and frack two wells in the Sahtu region near Norman Wells this winter. It’s now applying to drill 10 more wells. Meanwhile, Husky Energy’s proposal to drill and frack four wells in the same region is before the Sahtu Land and Water Board.

Full story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/...port-1.2633263

[Chadillaccc]

REALLY interesting story out of NWT. They could be the next Alberta. Trillions of cubic meters of natural gas, and 10s of billions of barrels of oil.



Northwest Territories Seeks Opportunities in Oil, Gas
Karen Boman | Rigzone Staff | Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Canada’s Northwest Territories hopes to further the aspirations of the territory and its people now that it is managing a larger share of its oil and gas resources.

Beginning April 1, the territory went from managing 1 percent of the oil, gas, minerals, and water resources within the 520,000 square mile territory to overseeing 80 percent of these resources. Negotiations for the devolution agreement were concluded in early March.

The move of decision-making power over regulatory issues from Canada’s capital to the local level marks a major change for the territory, Northwest Territories Minister of Industry, Tourism and Development Dave Ramsay told Rigzone Wednesday in an interview at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

...

The devolution agreements means that the Northwest Territories is now a province in all but name, and could eventually become a Canadian province, Ramsay said. The territory, twice the size of Texas and home to 43,000 people, currently receives on an annual basis from the federal government a $917.9 million (C$1 billion) grant to operate its government.

...

The Northwest Territories has estimated onshore natural gas resources of 16.1 trillion cubic feet. Ramsay said the territory’s offshore gas resources in the Beaufort Sea – which could rival the Gulf of Mexico in terms of straight up oil and gas resources – are larger than the estimated onshore gas resources.

...

The Northwest Territories has been in talks with the Alberta government to construct a possible port at Tuktoyaktuk. Alberta is interested in a northern port through which it can export oil. Ramsay said that investment would be needed to dredge and prepare a harbor to make a useful port.

...

Full story: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/...ies_in_Oil_Gas

[Chadillaccc]

For reference, 16.1 trillion cubic feet (the estimated amount of Natural Gas in NWT) is equivalent to 456 cubic kilometers.

[amor de cosmos]

very cool

First atlas of Inuit Arctic trails launched
Published 10 Jun 2014

New digital resource brings together centuries of cultural knowledge for the first time, showing that networks of trails over snow and sea ice, seemingly unconnected to the untrained eye, in fact span a continent – and that the Inuit have long-occupied one of the most resource-rich and contested areas on the planet.

Now, researchers have mapped these ancient routes using archival and published accounts of encounters with Inuit stretching back through the 19th and 20th centuries, and have released it online for the public as an interactive atlas – bringing together hundreds of years of accrued cultural knowledge for the first time.

The atlas, found at paninuittrails.org, is constructed from historical records, maps, trails and place names, and allows the first overview of the "pan-Inuit" world that is being fragmented as the annual sea ice diminishes and commercial mining and oil drilling encroaches.

Researchers say the atlas is important not just for cultural preservation but to show the geographical extent and connectedness of Inuit occupancy – illustrating their historic sovereignty and mobility over a resource-rich area with important trade routes that are opening up due to climate change.

"To the untutored eye, these trails may seem arbitrary and indistinguishable from surrounding landscapes. But for Inuit, the subtle features and contours are etched into their narratives and story-telling traditions with extraordinary precision," said Dr Michael Bravo from Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research Institute, who co-directed the research with colleagues Claudio Aporta from Dalhousie University, and Fraser Taylor from Carleton University in Canada.

"This atlas is a first step in making visible some of the most important tracks and trails spanning the North American continent from one end to the other."

Over the course of centuries, Arctic peoples established a network of trails – routes across the sea ice in the winter, and across open water in the summer, that stretched for hundreds of kilometres, allowing them to follow the seasonal movements of sea and land mammals on which their lives depended.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/f...rails-launched

http://www.paninuittrails.org

[Airboy]

Iqaluit grows and the road to nowhere gets a somewhere.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/...sion-1.2678001

[Chadillaccc]

That is really cool. I would have thought Iqaluit would be closer to 8 000 by now, but even 7 000 is a pretty solid population increase from 2011 It will be nice once they exceed 10 000 in about a decade or so. We'll have two true Inuit cities in the world, Nuuk and Iqaluit!

Regarding the two high density areas in the new subdivision, are they planning another Astro Hill Complex-type development?

[GlassCity]

Wow, very interesting. I'm curious to find out if this new subdivision will continue with just houses plopped onto land, or if they will go with a more traditional, southern look with fences separating properties. I'm also looking forward to seeing if they try and develop a grid system, or if they continue their current status quo of curvy roads.

Either way, this is fantastic for Iqaluit. I understand that they've had a pretty major housing shortage for quite a while now. Great to see Iqaluit continuing to grow.

[Chadillaccc]

There won't be a grid system. It would be very hard with their topography. Even the redevelopment plan for the main city itself doesn't include establishing a grid.

Here is the map of the new subdivision...









On another note, are there plans/visions to ever connect Iqaluit to Pangirtung and Kimmirut by road?

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

There won't be a grid system. It would be very hard with their topography. Even the redevelopment plan for the main city itself doesn't include establishing a grid.

Here is the map of the new subdivision...

That's true. Yeah I saw the map but I understood it as being just a concept and not the actual proposal.

[eemy]

I can't see them building a road to Pangnirtung. The terrain would make it ridiculously expensive, and it would almost certainly have to go through a National Park, which I just don't see happening.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I can't see them building a road to Pangnirtung. The terrain would make it ridiculously expensive, and it would almost certainly have to go through a National Park, which I just don't see happening.

Never be a road to Pang.You also have a ice cap to cross.

There is constantly talk of a road to Kimurut and an all season port there. There was some design on that but that was at least 10 years ago. You will see a road up Hudson Bay before you see anymore roads on the island. As for the road to no where there has been residential built along the lower end of that road this now takes it out toward the gravel pits.

Here is the area in question. looking SEish

[Airboy]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/...port-1.2703034

And so it begins

[bulliver]

Hey Airboy, do you ever hear any chatter about the MacKenzie Valley highway going ahead?

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by bulliver

Hey Airboy, do you ever hear any chatter about the MacKenzie Valley highway going ahead?

Latest is Wrigley training some of the local youth to be ready for some of the jobs. Sounds like it may be started in 15 or 16. At least as far as Norman Wells. Will not be fininshed in the next 20 years.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by bulliver

Hey Airboy, do you ever hear any chatter about the MacKenzie Valley highway going ahead?

Latest is Wrigley training some of the local youth to be ready for some of the jobs. Sounds like it may be started in 15 or 16. At least as far as Norman Wells. Will not be fininshed in the next 20 years.

The Tuk section is moving along though.

[bulliver]

Thanks, bummer. Didn't know it was to be staged. Was digging through PDFs on the NWTDOT website and I thought the idea was to push it right through.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by bulliver

Thanks, bummer. Didn't know it was to be staged. Was digging through PDFs on the NWTDOT website and I thought the idea was to push it right through.

Nwt would have to fund it themselves. Not fed money promised yet.

http://http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/n-w-t-now-plans-mackenzie-valley-highway-in-phases-1.2666794

[MolsonExport]

I recall on maps from my childhood (70s), there was a dashed line indicating the Mackenzie Highway, all the way up to Inuvik, implying that construction was imminent. Interesting how the Dempster got finished way before. Must be partially due to differences in topography. Especially how it connects the Yukon with Inuvik (NWT)