Glenfarne, the company that has an agreement with the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation to move a gasline forward for Alaska, will not be needing the $50 million guarantee that the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority had offered.
That news was relayed in a House committee today by AGDC President Frank Richards.
Glenfarne, the new majority owner and lead developer of the Alaska LNG project, will proceed without the previously approved $50 million financial backstop, a development that takes that off the table as criticism of the project. Some critics had said that Glenfarne didn’t have enough skin in the game, if that guarantee was in place.
Glenfarne had inherited that $50 million backstop guarantee from an agreement with an earlier pipeline builder, a builder that was only interested in doing the narrower building portion of the project, which had a lot more financial risk associate with it.
Richards told the House Resources Committee that Glenfarne is going to seek private financing for the entire project and won’t need to be reimbursed for the front-end engineering and design portion if the project does not reach a final investment decision.
The Alaska LNG project has received all major federal permits, and may eventually deliver up to 3.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day, some for Alaska and some for export. With Glenfarne’s leadership and financial commitment, the project is moving quickly toward that prized “final investment decision.” That decision is expected later this year.