Groups asked to weigh in on Mackenzie Gas Project deadline extension
The National Energy Board is asking a wide-ranging list of groups if Imperial Oil and the other companies who had been required to start building the $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas Project by now should get more time to begin construction of the pipeline.
A joint review panel originally decided back in 2009 that Imperial Oil and its partners had until the end of this year to begin building the 1,196-kilometre line.
That's obviously not going to happen given the current slump in natural gas prices, as Imperial Oil wrote in August. So the company is asking the National Energy Board to give it until 2022 to put shovels in the ground.
The board wrote the company last week with a long list of groups as diverse as the World Wildlife Fund and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation who will be given a chance to weigh in on whether Imperial Oil should get the extension.
If the company doesn't get that extension, it would have to reapply for project approvals — a process that took many more years than expected under the joint review panel system.
Groups have until Feb. 16 to write in to the board.
