Oil exploration bringing mini-boom to Sahtu region of NWT

The Sahtu Region of the Northwest Territories: regional office is in Norman Wells.

An oil exploration boom is bringing jobs to the Sahtu region of the Northwest Territories. Five oil and gas companies paid $500 million last summer for land parcels to explore and the work is underway. According to the terms of the licencing agreements, the companies have five years to drill.

Husky Energy is one of the companies working in the region. It won bids for two parcels of land worth about $380 million and is conducting seismic work outside Norman Wells, setting the stage for its winter drilling. Equipment—drill rig components, bulldozers, dump trucks, graders and cold-weather worker habitats—have been arriving in the community since last fall.

Husky Energy announced in 2006 that it had made a hydrocarbon discovery in the Central Mackenzie Valley. This led to the drilling of a well over 3,000 metres deep and the flow of 5 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.  

While there is excitement about the potential for the area, Husky Energy has been careful not to speculate on the size of the hydrocarbon reserves, saying only that the purpose of the seismic program and drilling is to “learn of the underlying geology and produce high-quality core samples for evaluation.”

The CBC quotes the mayor of Norman Wells, Dudley Johnson, saying that “anyone who wants a job can get a job” thanks to the exploration boom. Hotels are filling up, training in handling hazardous materials is going on and things are “quite busy here,” says Johnson.

The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development has put out another call for bids in the Central Mackenzie Valley.