The head of the company with the largest stake in the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline project is sounding optimistic that the deal will proceed.

Rex Tillerson, president of ExxonMobil, the majority shareholder of Imperial Oil, spoke in Calgary this week about the plans for the stalled pipeline.

Imperial is expected to tell regulators later this month whether it's ready for public hearings on the $7 billion project.

"My expectation is the Mackenzie pipeline will go forward. I think there's been good progress made in dealing with a number of long-standing issues regarding aboriginal claims and benefits and compensation that they expect."

Tillerson praised the federal government for coming up with a $500 million fund last summer to pay for the negative effects of pipeline construction.

Imperial Oil put the project on hold in April, saying aboriginal groups were expecting too much for compensation.

The president of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group says discussions are moving along well with his group and government over outstanding issues that need to be resolved before the partners in the project decide they're ready for public hearings.

Bob Reid, whose group has a one-third share in the project, told a transportation conference in Yellowknife Thursday that he's feeling bullish about completing access agreements with the four aboriginal organizations in the Mackenzie Valley.

"There are none in place as of today," he says. "But discussions are continuing and they've really heated up over these last 10 days and I'm very optimistic that within the next week or 10 days we will see some access and benefits agreements in place."

Reid says discussions continue with the federal government about royalties and taxation, but he didn't say when he expected an agreement.

Meanwhile, the Northwest Territories' industry minister was in Whitehorse Wednesday to meet with his Yukon counterpart to provide a united front on pipeline plans for the North.

Brendan Bell says the MacKenzie Gas project is likely to trump the Alaska Highway pipeline.

"It really is up to the producers in terms of which project they develop first, but if you look at it, we're into the regulatory review, and the Alaska project, although it's going to happen, doesn't have a project definition yet," he says.

"So if you just look at the levels of the two project, McKenzie is further advanced at this point and isn't as big or quite a challenge as the Alaska project."

The Mackenzie Valley pipeline project is expected to bring thousands of jobs and billions of dollars into the N.W.T. during construction and in the following decades. But it will also open vast areas of the territory to oil and gas development, prompting concern about environmental damage and social disruption along the its route.

CBC News