Having received approval from the federal cabinet the National Energy Board has issued a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the 1196 km long Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, part of the Mackenzie Gas Project.
The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline would run from the Beaufort Sea to northwestern Alberta, and is designed to carry up to 34.3 million m3/d (1.2 billion ft3) of natural gas. The Mackenzie Gas Project also includes three onshore natural gas fields, a pipeline gathering system to bring the gas from the development fields to a processing plant, a 457 km pipeline to carry natural gas liquids from Inuvik, NWT to an existing oil pipeline at Norman Wells, NWT and other related facilities.
The proponents for this project are Imperial Oil Resources Ventures Limited, the Mackenzie Valley Aboriginal Pipeline Limited Partnership, ConocoPhillips Canada (North) Limited, Shell Canada Limited and ExxonMobil Canada Properties. They will still be required to obtain various permits and authorisations from other boards and government agencies though before construction can commence.
The NEB is an independent federal regulator of several parts of Canada's energy industry. Its purpose is to regulate pipelines, energy development and trade in the Canadian public interest.
"This is the conclusion of the regulatory process. It's a significant milestone and obviously we're very pleased," said Pius Rolheiser, a spokesman for Imperial Oil.