Groups asked to weigh in on Mackenzie Gas Project deadline extension

The National Energy Board is asking awide-ranging list of groupsif Imperial Oil and the other companies who had beenrequired to start building the $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas Project by now should get more time to begin construction of the pipeline.

The boarddecided back in2011that 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 happengiven 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 weekwitha 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 approvalsa process that took many more years than expected.

Groups have until Feb.16 to write in to the board.