Oil and gas exploration in the Northwest Territories' Mackenzie Delta could start to dry up if construction doesn't start soon on the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline, an oil and gas industry executive says.

Hundreds of people, from construction workers to camp cooks, work in the Delta's exploration projects every year. But the number of jobs has gone down this year, compared to other years.

Further delays to the proposed pipeline — which is currently awaiting regulatory approvals — could make companies reluctant to invest more in the Delta, said Gary Bunio, vice-president of MGM Energy in Calgary.

"Everyone is impatient. If, for some reason, the regulatory process gets delayed, I would not be surprised to see very little activity next year," Bunio told CBC News.

MGM Energy is the only company exploring for gas in the Mackenzie Delta this winter, spending $74 million to drill four test wells in the northwestern part of the territory.

Bunio said the company is employing about 150 people in the Delta to drill the wells. That's down from the 300-plus workers MGM had working on seismic tests in the winter of 2007.

"If the [Mackenzie] pipeline had been approved two years ago, as was originally forecast, by now you, would have people surveying surface sites; you would have more construction people out there working right now," Bunio said.

"You would not only have a relatively low level of exploration work, but you would start to have construction development work as well."

Industry and community leaders are currently waiting for the Joint Review Panel to release its report on the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the proposed Mackenzie pipeline.

The panel's report was supposed to be ready earlier this year, but it has now been delayed until next year at the earliest.

That has made some N.W.T. government officials a little anxious, although they say they're happy with the amount of work in the Delta this year.

"We do hope it picks up and the pipeline does get built, because it's actually the only employment other than the government in our region right now," said Johnny Lennie, an oil and gas advisor with the territorial government.