The gasline company that the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation is in negotiations with to build the AK-LNG project was revealed this week to be the Glenfarne Group. The news came on Tuesday from the Alaska Landmine, a news and opinion organization that announced it on X. It has been confirmed by sources in the Governor’s Office.
At the end of a press availability on Jan. 6 with Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the AGDC President Frank Richards said the state-owned agency has entered into a framework agreement with a qualified energy producing company for Alaska LNG, a proposed 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. But Richards didn’t say who the company was, at the time. That news leaked out the next day.
“I don’t understand why people treat these things as so secretive. It always comes out anyway. It’s pretty loose when a deal of this nature gets broken by the Landmine,” said Jeff Landfield, publisher.
But it’s early, and it’s all a stage-gated process, where each party meets certain goals before moving forward, in order to de-risk the project for all parties at the table. The gas itself is owned by the oil companies with leases on the North Slope, and for many years has been very useful right where it is, reinjected into the drained underground oil geologic caverns to force out more oil for the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.
“The terms of the framework agreement are being negotiated or have been negotiated; the next step is for both parties to create a legally binding development agreement that will move the project forward,” Richards explained.
Glenfarne Group is a global company based in New York City and Houston, Texas and is a developer, owner, operator, and industrial manager of energy and infrastructure assets, like the one that Alaska has been trying to get out off of the drawing boards for decades.
Glenfarne, founded in 2011 by Australian Brendan Duval, also owns companies in South and Central America. In 2022, Glenfarne Asset Company, LLC acquired Termonorte Colombia S.A.S. (the “Plant” or “Termonorte”), a power plant located near the port of Santa Marta in Colombia.
“The acquisition reinforces Glenfarne’s commitment to providing grid stability to Colombia and the entire Latin American region,” the company said. Read more about Glenfarne at its website.
The group appears to have raised $4 billion for the $44 billion Alaska LNG project, which would bring North Slope gas to tidewater at Nikiski, where it could be exported to Asian markets. Offtakes would allow gas to be delivered to communities on the Railbelt, from Fairbanks to the Kenai Peninsula.
Never gonna happen, as long as the oil is coming out of the ground. The State is just continuing down a road of no return, with hundreds of millions of dollars lost in the process, which could have been used on real and viable infrastructure for the people of Alaska.
I see an annual route through the Northwest Passage for Alaskan resources delivered to Europe. I am sure Progressive America sees an ice worm that must be saved. And it gets worse. These same would murder a million to save one. And preach to you about their moral superiority. Trading success for failure because Nirvana is that close. Choosing a fantasy without restraint is better than a reality with rules.
run to reinforce the energy backbone of this state, tie th north end to the south end. hopefully the furie group blue crest group can tie into the developing grid, expand and develop our energy future. lets hope the egos can stay in check, the overall infrastructure gets developed.
Haven’t seen any published bids, so what is legal about this secretive behind closed door from the governor’s office?
What’s it going to cost the average Alaskan?
The average Alaskan doesn’t pay anything in the first place Mark.
actually yes the citizens do. opportunity costs from other decisions, lack of decisions. given the current ineffectual government policy integration it’s amazing the SOA is still standing.
VECO corruption looks amateur given the current structure. more people retiring from employee roles without competent replacements, ie the STIP fiasco is just an example.
our lack of SOA DOT road projects, snow removal, etc are criminal negligence at its best
S camp
I don’t know what I see land you live in, but I can tell you I pay a lot of taxes to the state every year over half of my PFD all of my licensing, personal property taxes, sales taxes, federal taxes. If you think for one minute that a $40 billion project that’s gonna run up to 70 or 80 billion in the end is not gonna cost the average user you’re in fantasy land and I would like to live there.
Glenfarne Group is owned by foreigners, even though headquarters is in New York. What ever happens, the controlling gas line operators must be American owned to stay within President Trump’s America first concept.
Governor Walker’s gas line proposal would have made China 75% owner, operator, builder, which would have taken control from American firms/contractors.
National Security doesn’t allow this type of investment.
Technically, NY isn’t American.
They shouldn’t have allowed China to buy property next to military sites either, but they did. Must have something to do with the air in DC. America’s security is only really important to the Americans that actually live in America, not the ones who live in D.C., generally speaking.
Until a major agrees to sell the gas, there’s really very little to liquify.
They already made a deal with Pantheon Resources to sell the gas
Yes, but the agreement takes effect only if AGDC and Pantheon make affirmative final investment decisions (FIDs) for their respective projects, including required permits and regulatory approvals. At this time the reserves are only estimates because Pantheon’s Aphun and Kodiak fields are yet to be drilled or developed (these are the sources of the proposed gas, NOT the historic reserves of the older, prolific NS fields like Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk, where gas continues to be rejected to sustain oil production). The estimated Pantheon reserves are far below the 32 TCF of Prudhoe Bay. So, we’ll see what happens, if anything.
Didn’t we, the state, spend millions on this project two or three times over the last 30 years and never got past preliminary planning ? Now more of our money is being spent to largely duplicate those efforts ? Sure would be nice if somebody would decide to either just build it or quit wasting citizens money on talking about it.
As long as they have to throw money at a “carbon capture” virtue project this pipeline can never be financially justified and will join the dozens of other schemes that are gathering dust on state office shelves.
Scheme is the right word. Wait for the raid on the PFD. Who really owns this company? If this ever happens, global warming will allow the gas plant to be built in the far north and shipped from there without a need for a pipeline.
I wonder if anyone has looked at Glenfarne Group’s capital. I remember the undercapitalized, risk frought Hilcorp deal – still waiting for an Inlet catastrophe. Asking for a friend.
Glenfarne Group bought the rights to the Magnolia LNG project in Louisiana for somewhere around $2,000,000.00 wonder how this deal with the state is going to look, since it’s a much more complicated project.
It’s always a given that when you follow the money on these mega projects it inevitably leads to foreign or domestic carpetbaggers that have little to no interest in what’s good for the State of Alaska or its residents.