At the end of an energy-focused press conference led by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the president of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation said AGDC has entered into a framework agreement with a qualified energy producing company for Alaska LNG — a gasline from the North Slope, which will include a Nikiski export facility, a pipeline, and carbon capture components. A formal agreement is expected to be announced soon.
Frank Richards, president of AGDC, said that there are hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas on the North Slope that is being looked at favorably by the market, and the Alaska LNG project has the potential to deliver from a proven source. It has secure economics and is close to Asian markets, and can eliminate up to 1.2 billion tons of global emissions from other sources of energy, he said.
While the current negotiations are private, an announcement is expected within a few months, he said. The next step is a development agreement, and the process is stage-gated, so that all stakeholder parties can manage their risk.
Before Bill Walker became governor in 2014, this is about where the Alaska gasline project was. But Walker wanted the communist Chinese to finance the gasline and become the major customer for the product, with a guaranteed contract for the gas that would be exported.
That ended when Mike Dunleavy became governor in 2018 and cut the negotiations with the Chinese government, Bank of China, and Sinopec.
Now, six years later, it’s back to a private-sector-financed project, with just two years left in the Dunleavy Administration to nail down the $44 billion project that has been talked about for generations in Alaska.
Hmmm(?) … Why continue to focus on building an extensive Gas Line (with compressor stations), from Prudhoe to South Central AK? Why not build the facilities on the North Slope, exporting via Tankers, supported with Ice Breakers, directly from the North Slope? Seems like we should be exploring this idea as an alternate approach.
The SS Manhattan proved this was technically feasible, but practically speaking just wouldn’t work. Otherwise oil companies would have chosen this method rather than building the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Of all the Arctic nations, America is the least capable in terms of ice breakers. Pipelines have proven to be the safest, most efficient and cost-effective method of moving energy from Point A to Point B. The number of LNG tankers and ice breakers necessary to transport the gas from the slope to Anchorage would be staggering.
Let’s quit talking and build the damn thing. The markets have changed radically even in the last 2 days. It is a security measure for Alaskans as well as a national security treasure. We need to be independent. Hopefully they are considering a plant to liquify gas at the Yukon river bridge for shipment up and down River to the villages. It will be a huge improvement for them.
Yawn.
Big nothing.
Again.
But the million$ and million$ of dollars spent consulting on this benefits Dunleavy’s buddies – tax paying Alaskans, not so much.
More B.S. from the political class!!!
Don’t most jokes have a punch line?
This project is the biggest scam to defraud the state of money that has yet been perpetrated since the state started getting billions of dollars from oil. The natural gas line is a completely uneconomical project that would never pay for itself due to the lack of AVAILABLE natural gas for sale from the North Slope oilfields and the cost that gas would have to be sold for in comparison to other available natural gas for sale around the world, including in the lower 48. This whole project has made a few people rich and has cost the state hundreds of millions in lost money. If a gas line project would make money, the producers would have built it. This is a scam on par with the climate hoax being perpetrated by other rich people with big megaphones.
Who is the “qualified energy producing company for Alaska LNG” whose name cannot be mentioned?
Any serious major would surely be up front about it.
Somebody sure wants the wind fall from the LNG project. I’ll be going to bed. It won’t be Alaska that makes any money it’s gonna be whoever puts up the $50 billion to build it. We are just gonna get the leftovers secret negotiations always lead to the wrong conclusion
First, having China as a gas customer reduces the massive trade deficit between the US and China- which now stands to our disadvantage at about $25 billion per month. If we do have to trade with the communist dictatorship, our country should not allow such a massive trade deficit. Selling them gas reduces that disadvantage.
Second, this project is BS. We do have the gas, and we do have the proximity to the Asian markets, but so does Russia. Russia has- for ten years now- been moving LNG to market via ice breaking LNG tankers. Alaska could do the same if we were not stuck on stupid. AGDC wants to put the economics of an Alaska project at a major disadvantage by building a 800 mile long gas line, with expensive compressor stations to move the gas through the pipeline. That massive capital expense- or capex- significantly reduces the viability of the Alaska project. That makes our gas less competitive, and it reduces the revenue to Alaskans as those capex and operational costs require a much higher tariff. The higher the tariff, the less revenue Alaska gets.
The final bit of nonsense with AGDC is it wants $50 million more from Alaskans to pay for their boondoggle. If the private sector wants a real project, those costs should not be paid by Alaskans- but by the private companies involved. The fact that Dunleavy wants Alaskans to bail out the BS project shows, clearly, that the private companies have no faith in the project, or worse, no financial ability to proceed.
Governor Bill Walkers gas line would be in service and pumping gas by now had law makers signed on to the project which would have crippled Biden’s recent gas ban . I also remember many so called conservatives sounding out against Walkers gas line on the conservative radio talk shows when he was governor, big mistake!
Maybe it wasnt the “so called conservatives sounding out against Walkers “Chinese” gas line that foiled his plan.
Could it be the “honorable Lisa” was asleep at the wheel or she didnt see anything in the project that would have benefitted her.
She often brags about working hard for Alaska but recently supported the Biden regime that has decimated Alaska’s energy future.
She was the very first to favor Deb Haaland who dealt a crippling blow to any development.
She is more concerned about reelection than Alaska’s future.
Trump was there for the signing of the agreement of Walker and Sinopec. China was still our friend. Meanwhile Dunleavy cuts the ties with China in 2018. In 2018 LNG Canada shareholders which include PetroChina approve an LNG export terminal. 40 billion dollar project. It will be in production this year. Dunleavy is incompetent.
I guess AIDEA doesn’t have to spend that 50 million for the in-state natural gas pipeline they were planning last month. Another day another project.
Best guess is the mystery qualified energy producing company is Houston-based Pantheon.
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“In June 2024, Pantheon entered into a Gas Sales Precedent Agreement with Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), a state-owned entity leading the efforts for the development of the Alaska LNG Project – a proposed major infrastructure project designed to commercialize natural gas from the ANS to the global marketplace. Under the agreement, Pantheon agrees to provide up to 500 million cubic feet of gas to Southcentral Alaska through the natural gas pipeline (Phase 1) on terms that provide funding capacity to support all of Pantheon’s expected development costs after Ahpun Field Final Investment Decision. Pantheon is currently expected to serve as the sole supplier of gas for the pipeline.
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Pantheon believes that material borrowing capacity supported by the agreement has the potential to be enough to achieve financial self-sufficiency for full Ahpun and Kodiak developments, and will also result in material gas disposal cost savings to Pantheon.
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Pantheon’s agreement with AGDC creates an optimal alignment of interests with the State of Alaska. The objective is for Pantheon to provide lower cost gas than alternatives – a win-win benefitting Alaskan consumers faced with looming supply shortfall. Furthermore, the agreement removes reliance on LNG exports to support pipeline construction costs which enhances the overall Alaska LNG project.”
(‘https://pantheonresources.com/)
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Who knows, this scheme could work. But the big red flag is insiders aren’t explaining beforehand:
(a) what indemnifies Alaskan taxpayers and protects the Permanent Fund from cost overruns, delays, project failure?
(b) does “global marketplace” mean Communist China is directly or indirectly an investor, customer, builder, or operator?
(c) will Alaskans or the Permanent Fund be liable for “…terms that provide funding capacity to support all of Pantheon’s expected development costs”?
(d) what are those “terms”?
(e) what facts prove this investment is better for Southcentral than Cook Inlet gas?
(f) what facts prove the “looming shortfall” exists?
(g) what guarantees this project lowers Southcentral energy costs?
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Seems like a sad state of affairs when the public has to ask about something this big because Important People won’t say.