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The Sahtu Secretariat has referred an Imperial Oil project that the company said was urgent to environmental assessment.
Imperial wants to replace pipelines connecting two islands in Norman Wells. Doing so would unlock oil the company hasn’t been able to reach for years.
Earlier this month, Imperial said it needed its proposal to swiftly advance through the regulatory process to keep the Norman Wells facility operating.
If there was no movement on the Line 490 project by October, Imperial said, that might jeopardize its chances of doing the work in 2025 and the Norman Wells operation could “shut down by 2026, and potentially even earlier.”
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On Tuesday, the Sahtu Secretariat – which represents the Dene and Métis of the Sahtu in regulatory proceedings – responded by formally sending Line 490 to environmental assessment. (The legislation governing environmental assessments gives the Sahtu Secretariat the power to do so.)
An environmental assessment is a detailed examination of the way a project could affect the environment as well as the local economy and other areas. Those assessments take time – often years.
Triggering such an assessment may extend the regulatory timeline in a way that makes Imperial’s goal of completing the work in 2025 impossible.
After this article was first published, Imperial told Cabin Radio its staff were “working to fully understand the impact of this decision on our project timeline and are assessing next steps.”
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In a letter to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, which would oversee an assessment, Sahtu Secretariat chair Charles McNeely said Line 490 is “substantively different” from existing authorizations held by Imperial and warrants extra scrutiny.
The company is proposing to use horizontal directional drilling, or HDD, to dig a tunnel under the Mackenzie River and pull a pipeline through that tunnel to connect the two islands.
“This combination of ‘unique, novel and unusual’ technology with a continually changing river environment clearly calls for a full environmental assessment,” McNeely wrote, referring to HDD.
He said some groups in the region feel Imperial’s obligation to consult has “not been meaningfully fulfilled” and an environmental assessment would examine whether the company could “do more” to support the region’s economy.
Facility’s future
What this means for the operation of Imperial’s Norman Wells facility is not immediately clear.
Operations at Norman Wells, where oil has been produced for more than a century, are already expected to wrap up in the next decade. The question is how long the facility will keep going.
Earlier this month, the company sent a letter to Sahtu leaders stating it needed “a decision on the regulatory processes by October 1, 2024, to allow for reasonable flexibility in project funding and contracting for equipment delivery via winter roads.”
If that happened, the company added, the Norman Wells site could remain operational for another five to 10 years. If it didn’t happen, Imperial intimated the facility could close in the blink of an eye.
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One official said at the time that Imperial was using the regulatory process to “threaten” regional leadership. They characterized Imperial’s approach as demanding that Line 490 be advanced while warning that the consequences would otherwise be dire for local communities.
However, Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely told Cabin Radio earlier this month he didn’t see it that way. McNeely said the company was “just giving advance notice and making the circumstances a little bit more clear.”
He said Imperial was “if anything, trying to upgrade to a much safer technology” through its Line 490 proposal.
Speaking before the Sahtu Secretariat took its decision, the MLA said he did not think an environmental assessment was necessary.
Correction: September 25, 2024 – 9:49 MT. This article initially stated the pipeline replacement project involves two artificial islands. While there are a range of artificial islands at Imperial’s Norman Wells site, the two islands involved are not artificial.
