Oil and gas exploration booming in Sahtu

The 2012 exploration season in the Sahtu region of the Northwest Territories is starting off with a boom.

Last summer, five oil and gas companies won bids for land parcels in the region amounting to $500 million.

Some communities are already feeling the economic impacts.

"The last five years have been really slow," said Dudley Johnson, the mayor of Norman Wells, N.W.T.

Johnson said that aside from employment from Imperial Oil, which operates a pipeline from the town, jobs are hard to come by in Norman Wells.

"But now, it seems like anyone who wants a job can get a job," said Johnson.

Johnson said the exploration buzz began shortly after the five companies won bids last summer.

One of those companies is Husky Energy, which won bids for two parcels of land in the region worth almost $380 million. Its seismic program is located just outside of Norman Wells.

"The hotels are pretty well filling up. The airlines bringing in crews, vehicles being rented. It's quite, quite busy here," said Johnson.

The demand for workers is being felt across the Sahtu, which also includes Tulita, N.W.T., Colville Lake, N.W.T., Deline, N.W.T., and Fort Good Hope, N.W.T.

Rocky Norwegian is with the Tulita Benefits Corporation.

"A lot of training is going on. [People are] taking all their WHMIS [Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System course], first aid. 50 to 60 people are taking those courses," said Norwegian.

Husky Energy said it can’t speculate about how much it will invest in exploration this year or how many jobs will be created.

The companies have five years to drill wells as part of the licensing agreement.

The true test of industry's interest in the Sahtu could come at the end of the month. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development has put out yet another call for bids in the Central Mackenzie Valley.