Breaking: Walker, Meyer get the band back together to buy AK-LNG project from state AGDC agency

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They’re true believers in the gasline. Former Gov. Bill Walker and former Alaska Gasline Development Corporation President Keith Meyer are leading an effort to take over the Alaska Gasline project from Alaska Gasline Development Corporation.

They announced the launch of Alaska Gasline & LNG LLC, at AGLNG.com today, along with Laborers Local 341 President Joey Merrick, and Bernie Karl, who serves on the board of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.

The group have established the new private entity with the purpose of “requesting and accepting the leadership of the integrated Alaska gasline and LNG project, and moving the project forward to completion.”

The project has recently completed most of its big federal permits and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation wants to return it to private hands.

Walker would be those private hands. Under his direction as governor, however, he nationalized the project and drove out the private sector partners. Now, he is willing to take the project on as a private entity.

The group says “AGLNG will undertake the mission of putting the Alaska gasline and LNG export project in service, to the benefit of all Alaskans, and with a specific goal of being in-service by March, 2028, which will be the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Prudhoe Bay field, North America’s largest oil and gas field.”

The project is projected to cost between $40 billion and $60 billion to build, and it’s clear the principals of the new entity don’t have that cash on hand. As governor, Walker tried to sell off major portions of the project to the Chinese.

Perhaps a new Biden Administration would fund the group? That may be one of the strategies to put together the aggressive funding and construction schedule needed to bring gas online in less than eight years.

This story will be updated.

33 COMMENTS

  1. This is a BS move by Walker and he is going to make sure he sucks up all the state money he can while he does this latest theft from the state of Alaska. I would shut down the AKLNG Project in it’s entirety, if I was running this state and, if Walker wants to pay US back for all the permitting costs, we’ll sell it to him. Ass hats like Walker are the reason the state is in such financial disrepair and he should not be able to further enrich himself for impoverishing the state.

    • Walker lied about how he was going to help the state. I voted for him, he took my dividend, wooed the Chinese with over 30 grand to be a member of their business club then proceeded to take Cares Act money for one of his projects. My kids are going without fishing trips because his wants are more important than the average Alaskan. Get Sarah Palin back in, the cronyism need to stop.

    • Are you daft? They pay dues. Men need jobs. They need a leader. It does not matter if Walker is at the helm or not. Merrick is the man for the job. But, Walker is not capable of negotiating a union contract when it is at the expense of screwing the state over and its citizens. Walker works for Dunleavy and Dunleavy doesn’t beat the drum, Walker does in Fairbanks. This man does not need any more money. He needs to go back to his Law Practice and keep his nose out of politics. The only person he serves is himself.

  2. God help us. We are liable to see our state overrun with Chinese. Not sorry, as I am not a fan of the CCP in any capacity coming into America for any reason and I especially do not trust Ex Gov Walker.

    It is already bad enough he sold us all out to obamanation to implement his terrorist implant of an ongoing illegal refugees home settlement and financial support program, and that Gov Dunleavy is continuing that bullshit without allowing any resident poll on the matter.

    • Do you not think the Chinese American does not deserve a fair rate of pay? Random Alaskan is coming off steamingly racist. There are plenty of people that entered this country legally and pay taxes. Just because they don’t want to live in Hoboken New Jersey is not a crime. Many Alaskans are not willing to be housekeepers, stock at Wal Mart of be janitors. Get a grip and start thinking with your head on straight!

      • NObody said ANYthing about Chinese Americans.

        Not the article:
        “As governor, Walker tried to sell off major portions of the project to the Chinese.”

        Not you in your reply to Robert Rubey:
        “I voted for him, he took my dividend, wooed the Chinese with over 30 grand to be a member of their business club then proceeded to take Cares Act money for one of his projects.”

        And not RANDOM ALASKAN in the comment you replied to here:
        ” We are liable to see our state overrun with Chinese.”

        What’s racist, IMO, is trying to twist what somebody says and make it into and/or about racism when it’s not.

        • Don’t get your britches in a bundle P.B. Read what was written, “We are liable to see our state run over with the Chinese.” I hope my son marries a nice Chinese girl! Globalism is here. Walker is from old Fairbanks money. He’s not going anywhere. It is his entitlement. The best thing Trump could have done is initiate Trans-Canada. It will be far more profitable to ship steel than transport gas. There are other projects that need to be seen to completion.

          • “The Chinese” and “Chinese Americans” are two completely different things
            Mrs. Richards (who hasn’t shown back up here to reply) made a strong accusation that what Random Alaskan said makes him/her a “steaming” racist. I stand by what I said about twisting somebody’s words to make them out tot be racist.
            Claiming racism when you are fully aware that it isn’t there (unless you are stupid enough to believe otherwise) is one of the absolutly worst forms that racism takes (kinda like that actor in Chicago this past summer).

  3. So when governor, Walker acted like a socialist, now that he is private citizen, he wants to be a capitalist? I guess that is why he only lasted one term.
    He had such great potential but sold out to the big DEM machine for the power.

  4. Yeah, this all we need to do: Give away a valuable, publicly owned contractural or property right so that this group of charlatans can use it to bilk others out of money and then extort money from the State to transfer the interest back to the State. Ever hear of Trans-Canada? Dealing with this group would be dealing with the devil.

    • In regards to Trans-Canada. Too many Alaskans stick their head in the sand, like you, and say “The sky is falling.” The Brits are right there laughing at us with their sick British humor, saying the Americans can’t think their way out of a box, while their fat lovely giant named B.P. recovers her losses, makes bank in Brazil, and Brexit and moves forward with Capitalism. It a fool who doesn’t support the facilitation of these projects. You go into the interior of Alaska, look at the trestles. Think big. At least Walker has that going for him. Canada is a British Province. Alaska has been doing business with the Brits for years. Ans we get Harry and Megan to boot. Maybe they’ll crack the bottle of Champayne on the first engine to cross the line.

  5. Another dead end for the disgraced former governor. This plan has been folded in his back pocket, waiting to go if Biden got elected. First, Biden’s win is going to get called back in the coming weeks. Second, Walker cannot raise the capital needed to build a $60 billion gas pipeline. Third, the Chinese won’t invest unless they get total controlling interest in development and production decisions. Fourth, the world market for North Slope gas will not make this a profitable venture, not when natural gas can be picked up dirt cheap in Indonesian, South American, and Russian markets. This project will be a non-starter. Walker should go to Wally Hickel’s grave and summon advice. He would get this message:
    “I couldn’t do it, and you certainly can’t do it. And when they put you in the ground, stand like me, facing North, with a Bible, and your last, uncashed full PFD check in your hand.

    • Dividends used to pay for my kids summer camps, sports Camps and road trips throughout Alaska. Walker screwed over our finances and every other Alaskan business that depended on that revenue. And now he’s taken Cares Act money too! Where does it end? He took and oath to practice Law. Now he’s using his talents to exploit resources that belong to municipalities and state governments.

  6. boon·dog·gle
    /ˈbo͞onˌdäɡəl/
    Learn to pronounce
    INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN
    noun
    work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.
    “writing off the cold fusion phenomenon as a boondoggle best buried in literature”
    verb
    waste money or time on unnecessary or questionable projects.
    “the only guarantees are higher taxes and bureaucratic boondoggling”

  7. Sell it to him for the costs already incurred so the state can recoup it’s losses on this waste of money.
    .
    If he leads this project the way he lead the state it will go belly up in short order.
    .
    With the market on natural gas completely saturated it would be cheaper to purchase and bring gas to Alaska from anywhere in the world other than from the North Slope.

  8. Walker should not get anything related to energy. He has made it his mission to sue any energy producer or project to make a buck. He is up to no good. We do not need him controlling anything in this state. We should prepare to sue him and his group if he trys to gain control.

  9. How many millions has Walker, his family, and friends made in the last 40 years pimping the gasline? What a waste of time and money. The only viable method of marketing the North Slope gas is LNG Ships over the Pole through the Northwest or Northeast Passages. Build a LNG facility on the Slope. A $60 BILLION pipeline to tidewater would require gas to be 7 to 10 times the market value. The world is awash in cheap natural gas and countries are still drilling and developing new sources worldwide……….

  10. Walker is a snake, just like most of the oil and gas industry in Alaska. Walker wants to LNG line to terminate in Valdez, his hometown, and where all his cronies have sunk money into.

    Isn’t in odd that he shutdown a privately funded, owned line while he was Governor, but now he wants to privately fund the project? I trust Walker like I trust Biden and Harris!

    • Biden and Harris haven’t eaten your cookies and regurgitated them into someone’s personal Communist Manifesto for running an elitist regime. This is a mature, adult, man, who lacks the compassion of Parnell, the charisma of Sarah Palin, or the Fatherly presense of Murkowski. The powers that be in Fairbanks should put him in the same saddles as the Board of Regents. UAF could use his exploitative talents.

    • Walker needs to work for a bank, anything but the state or any state government related expenditures where find legal print is being manipulated to extract money from citizens of the State of Alaska, who are slowly becoming peasants to his glorious aristocracy. And is this the nasty man who told every Alaskan woman to stop having babies! What’s next, restricting pre-natal testing and purposely telling families your children are an added expense the dividend can’t bear?

  11. North Slope gas will be marketed when the producers say it is time to be marketed. Right now, significant amounts of ‘extra’ oil are being produced because the gas is being reinjected into the reservoirs to maintain pressure and augment multiple enhanced oil recovery mechanisms (think Prudhoe Bay and Pt. Thomson fields). Anybody older than Alaska (me included) will likely not be around when it makes sense to have a large scale major gas project on the North Slope. Counting blessings now because the $45-60 billion pipeline was NOT built/sanctioned 3-5 years ago. That project needed Asian gas prices to be $10-$14 per thousand cubic feet (MCF) to make sense. U.S. natural gas prices (L48) as we write are about $3/MCF, and that is twice the selling price of a year or so ago. Current price in the Asian market is about $6/MCF. Think that one through. The State of Alaska does much better using the gas to produce more oil now.

  12. If China (CCP) buys into Alaska’s natural resources, where they can make money from it, then they will stop supporting the obstruct and delay environmentalists. Of course, without the envirnazis obstruct, delay, and sue /settle tactics to worry about, combined with their financial clout, they will get waiver after waiver of environmental rules.
    They would also most likely build “man camps” populated with Chinese workers.
    When does greed and corruption cross over that ill defined line into treason?

  13. Walker is an idiot. He screwed up the LNG project when he was governor by taking it out of the hands of the oil companies who were making it work. Sean Parnell did all the work to make the plan come to fruition and Walker just completely screwed it up. The project is now effectively dead because of Walker. Now Walker thinks he can start a private company and buy the project himself. That is completely laughable. He’s not a billionaire. He doesn’t have the money. He is also far too stupid to run a company like that. He was too stupid to be governor. I guess he is at least not playing with the taxpayers’ money this time.

  14. The gas line is never going to happen. The world is beginning to transition away from fossil fuels. The current generation of kids in school are growing up with climate change being a subject that is taught to them and they are not interested in prolonging the current damage being done to the environment.

    For the past 20 years I’ve read news stories about the gas line and it’s no closer now than it was then. It’s time to let it die and move on.

  15. This stinks to high Heaven! These two politicians siphoned millions of dollars of State money into this failed project & now they will buy it back as a private entity for pennies on the dollar. Corruption, corruption, corruption! If only we had a competent FBI.

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