Alaska LNG export project, partners complete their preliminary work
Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) and affiliates of ExxonMobil Corp., BP PLC, and ConocoPhillips Co. concluded preliminary work that will allow them to assume responsibility for the natural gas export project's technical and regulatory activities, the joint venture announced last week in Anchorage.
They said under a preliminary front-end engineering and design agreement, all deliverables and the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission draft environmental and socioeconomic resource reports have been completed.
The parties consequently have spent more than $500 million on the proposed project, which will include:
• A liquefaction facility in the Nikiski area on the Kenai Peninsula.
• An 800-mile, 42-in. pipeline.
• As many as eight compression stations.
• At least five off-take points for in-state gas delivery.
• A gas treatment plant on Alaska's North Slope near the partners' supplies.
• Transmission lines to move gas from Prudhoe Bay and the Point Thomson gas treatment plant.
The project is designed to export as much as 20 million tonnes/year of LNG, AGDC said. It plans now to complete the FERC pre-filing process, it said.
The announcement continued a process that began in 2014 when Alaska's state legislature authorized the project, which then included TransCanada Corp. as a partner with the three ANS producers (OGJ Online, Apr. 21, 2014). The Calgary oil and gas transmission company subsequently withdrew from the venture.
AGDC and its partners submitted an export application to the US Department of Energy and a pre-filing request to FERC later that year, followed by initial draft environmental and socioeconomic reports to FERC in 2015 as it began its environmental impact review (OGJ Online, July 21, 2014; Sept. 8, 2014; Feb. 12, 2015).
DOE subsequently issued a conditional authorization for what was then known as Alaska LNG Project LLC to export as much as 2.55 bscfd of US-produced gas for 30 years to countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with the US after concluding they would serve the US national interest (OGJ Online, May 28, 2015).
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.