Mackenzie pipeline critics using wrong numbers: Imperial

Critics of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline have inflated some numbers related to the pipeline's impact on future development, an official with Imperial Oil told the joint review panel on Thursday.

Speaking to the panel, which is reviewing the environmental and social impacts of the pipeline proposal, Imperial Oil pipeline executive Randy Ottenbreit criticized numbers used by the Pembina Institute and the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee to show how the gas project could touch off a wave of subsequent additional development.

"Our review of the scenarios developed by the Pembina Institute and the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee concludes that those scenarios are neither plausible nor credible," Ottenbreit told the panel Thursday during hearings in Yellowknife.

For instance, Ottenbreit said representatives with the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee showed the potential fragmentation of woodland caribou habitat, saying such fragmentation would happen above the treeline— an unlikely place, he said.

As well, he said, the Pembina Institute used numbers that don't match those the companies have put on the public record, regarding the number of wells and well pads that gas producers would be expected to drill.

"The Pembina Institute analysis, when applied to the three anchor fields, concludes there would be 440 wells required, whereas in fact about 30 will be required," he said.

Calgary-based Imperial Oil is the lead proponent of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline, which would run natural gas about 1,200 kilometres through the Northwest Territories to southern markets.

Other partners in the pipeline project include Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell Canada and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

Ottenbreit made his remarks after most of the expert presenters for environmental groups had left Yellowknife, leaving them unable to respond Thursday. However, the joint review panel agreed to accept rebuttals in writing from those groups.

Panel hearings are scheduled to wrap up on Friday.