Two more areas have been released in north Yukon for oil and gas exploration, Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Archie Lang announced Monday.

While there were concerns raised about the timing of the release and the location of the areas, Lang said, the Yukon government needs to keep stirring up interest in the territory's oil and gas potential.

The government, he said, did address a number of concerns raised by first nations by making the areas for nomination smaller, as well as highlighting areas of special concern that will require extra care if a company wants to explore them.

'I think we are being very positive and very responsible where we have to balance the environment and industry,' he said. 'We understand that. We are totally in sync with that.'

Officials with the oil and gas branch who were present at Monday's announcement to answer technical questions explained the entire process leading to the award of exploration rights will take about six months.

As is the common practice in the industry, territorial and provincial governments typically release a general area in which they ask industry to nominate more specific sites.

Once the nominations are complete, governments release one or more of the specific sites for exploration. The company which promises to spend the most on exploration and possibly development is generally awarded the rights.

Oil and gas companies have until May 11 to nominate areas of interest. The Yukon expects to release one or more of the nominated areas in September.

This is the fourth call for nominations since Anderson Resources Ltd. now Devon Canada of Calgary first bid $20.4 million in 1999 to explore two areas near Eagle Plains over six years.

Devon has until next year to complete the work and earn rights to an extension of the lease or lose the 25-per-cent deposit companies are required to place with their bids. Anderson secured a second exploration parcel in the Eagle Plains area with a bid of $2.9 million in 2001. That work must be complete by 2007.

Hunt Oil of Canada won the fourth exploration parcel in 2002 with a bid of $1.16 million to explore an area in the Peel Plateau.

Of the $24.5 million committed in total, government staff estimate $7 million has been spent.

This call for nominations involves a tract of land that straddles the Dempster Highway and stretches west to the border of the Fishing Branch protected area, as well as another area in the Peel Plateau region. The government was criticized sharply for opening up areas on the plateau that include sensitive wetlands.

Lang pointed out the call for nominations describes both the wetlands and a 20-kilometre buffer along the Fishing Branch as area that require special consideration.

Chief Joe Linklater of Old Crow's Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation said Monday the first nation is generally opposed to oil and gas development in northern Yukon. Promoting exploration impacts negatively on the Gwitchin's international lobby effort to prevent drilling on the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Linklater explained.

'But we also understand the territorial government has a larger obligation and a larger constituency,' Linklater said.

He also noted the government did address concerns raised by flagging the sensitive areas, as well as reducing the overall size of the area.

The first nation, however, hasn't heard back regarding its position that the Yukon government should not necessarily accept the highest bid for an area.

It may be, Linklater explained, that even the highest bid can prove well below the true value of the exclusive exploration rights for an area.

A source from the Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation in Dawson said the first nation is on record with its opposition to anymore dispositions in the Peel River area prior to the conclusion of a land use exercise.

But, like Linklater, the source said the government did take steps to address other concerns.

Lang said the government can't afford to sit idle as plans advance to build both the Mackenzie Valley and Alaska Highway pipelines to move northern natural gas to southern markets.

When exploration interest took off in recent years in the Mackenzie Valley, the Government of the Northwest Territories was overrun with land nominations and bids for exploration rights, he said.

The minister said moving forward now with exploration leases makes for a more orderly approach while there is still time.

It also lets industry know the Yukon is interested in taking advantage of its oil and gas potential, particularly as the northern pipeline proposals look more and more likely to come about, he said.

Premier Dennis Fentie was briefly on a speaker-phone for Monday's announcement to make opening remarks from Calgary, where he was attending an oil and gas conference.

The Yukon, said Fentie, is advancing its effort to attract investment, and he was in Calgary to let industry know the territory is proceeding with more land sales.