Mackenzie Pipeline Project Delayed Due To Pending Environmental Impact Report

Calgary, Canada (AHN) - The $16.2-billion Mackenzie gas pipeline project of Imperial Oil Limited would be delayed because of a pending environmental impact report. The delay would eat at last a year from the project's timetable.

The project has been on the planning stage since 2004, but aboriginal land access issues and financing problems were among the setbacks the project has faced the past few years.

Original Oil's timetable was to have the pipeline operational by 2014. The Joint Review Panel created to go over the project proposal had a first deadline of August 2007 to come up with a final report, but pushed it back to because of the volume of work involved, explained Annette Bourgeois-Bent, communications manager of Northern Gas Project Secretariat, which assists the JRP.

Bent told the Globe and Mail, "It's a monumental task... There's thousands of papers of evidence and the panel is committed to doing a thorough job and analyzing the information to the best of tis ability."

The delay was the second setback for Imperial Oil, which lost on Wednesday a court case over its plant to explore the $8-billion Kearl oilsands mine for black gold. The basis of Federal Justice Douglas Campbell's decision was the lack of government jurisdiction on the case to award the permit.

Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans granted Imperial Oil in February a water permit, but the permit was declared null on March 20 by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. But an updated report may possibly restore the permit.