CALGARY, Alta. – Enbridge has thrown its hat in as a surprise player in the bid to bring Arctic natural gas south.

The firm’s chief executive officer Pat Daniel confirms the company has pitched a US$15-billion pipeline plan to Alaska and Mackenzie Delta producers.

“We’re proposing to be a builder, owner and operator of a pipeline or pipelines from the North, both for the Alaska reserves and the Canadian Mackenzie Delta reserves,” Daniel tells national media sources.

“We have developed what we think is the most logical route and cost-effective route and environmentally friendly route out of the North.”

He acknowledged that Calgary-based Enbridge has tried to remain out of the headlines as hometown rival TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Houston-based Arctic Resources Co. and gas producer groups floated pipeline proposals.

The company’s plan consists of a single system along the so-called “over-the-top” offshore route.

The system, which would consist of two, twinned 36-inch-diameter pipes, would connect Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay to the Mackenzie Delta of the Northwest Territories with a subsea pipeline running about six km off the coast.

Both Alaskan and Delta gas would be carried down the Mackenzie Valley to Alberta.

The gas could be moved out of Alberta to Chicago on an expanded Alliance pipeline system, in which Enbridge has a 21 per cent stake, he adds.