Alaska Seeks Help to Advance LNG Project

Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) said March 8 it has reached out to global majors ExxonMobil and BP for help advancing its $43bn project in the face of customer and investor indifference.

AGDC’s interim CEO Joe Dubler said the two companies, who each have significant natural gas reserves on Alaska’s North Slope, will work with AGDC to identify ways to improve the project’s competitiveness and advance the regulatory process at the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc).

“Our respective organisations share an interest in the successful commercialisation of Alaska’s stranded North Slope natural gas,” Dubler said. “BP and ExxonMobil possess world-class LNG expertise which may help AGDC responsibly advance this project with maximum efficiency for the benefit of Alaskans, and I welcome their collaboration.”

The AGDC statement made no mention of either BP or ExxonMobil re-investing in the project. They, along with US major ConocoPhillips, withdrew from the project in 2016 after a Wood Mackenzie report showed it ranked poorly amongst other global LNG investments.

On February 28, Ferc announced that a final environmental impact statement for the 20mn mt/yr Alaska LNG project would be delayed until March 2020, from November 2019, and that final federal approvals would not be expected until June 2020.