There will be very little oil and gas activity in the Yukon until the futures of the Mackenzie Valley and Alaska Highway pipelines are determined, says Michel Scott, vice-president for government and public affairs with Devon Canada Corp.

Scott spoke to a packed room at the High Country Inn as part of the Opportunities North trade conference this morning.

'We need to see both pipelines, in my view, if you're going to exploit any oil and gas resource here. You need the Mackenzie Valley at the northern end and the Alaska at the southern end,' he told the room.

The pipelines would allow producers drilling at Kontaneelee and Eagle Plains, Yukon, to more easily access the markets, he said.

'That's the message. Earlier, everyone was sort of upbeat on the activities and opportunities for the Yukon, and I think this will be one, but it's not here right now.

'Right now, we're going to have to see the pipe starting to go into the ground and know it's going to happen.'

Other factors needed to move ahead with oil and gas projects in the Yukon will be clearly-defined rules and regulations and access to land on a sustainable basis, he added.

Oil and gas producers are competing on a world scale for capital, Scott said. If the Yukon's processes aren't at least as good as anywhere else and their royalty regimes don't match up with those of other parts of Canada, the producers won't come to the territory, he said.

'If it's too complicated to participate in one particular area, well then, the capital moves somewhere else.'

Producers also like to know what type of regulations to expect into the future, he said.

Scott suggested the territorial government needs to map out plans for oil and gas projects and the regulatory regimes surrounding them with an outlook going at least 25 years into the future.

'We have to understand under what terms and conditions we are going to be able to access the land now and into the future,' Scott said.

Another problem with the foreseeable future of projects in the territory is the current lack of infrastructure, he added.

Drilling in Kontaneelee neared the $40-million mark, he said, a cost that put it twice as high compared to if there had been a project just south and across the British Columbia border.

The work in Eagle Plains has cost five times as much as a project south of 60, Scott added.

Producers are also now starting to invest dollars into more unconventional sources such as shale gas and coal bed methane, said Scott.

'(Producers) are all competing directly with the dollars that could have otherwise come up here and drilled in a more costly environment.'

Producers coming to the Yukon need to see that all the work they'll be doing will be converting itself into dollars, added Scott.

'We're sort of waiting now. We're sort of turning our activities down and waiting to see what happens with the pipelines. Until we see that, there's going to be limited activity.'

Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski and Premier Dennis Fentie were scheduled to discuss the northern pipelines and other economic opportunities at the conference at lunchtime today.

The duo were to also address the proposed Alaska-Yukon railway and development options for northern ocean ports.

The three-day, multi-jurisdictional northern business conference and trade show was organized by the Yukon Chamber of Commerce. The government has contributed $50,000 and trade show sponsorships.