Alaska LNG working to answer agencies' questions: part of the $240 million 2016 work plan.

• Author: Persily, Larry
• Position: OIL & GAS

This update, provided by the Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor's office, is part of an ongoing effort to help keep the public informed about the Alaska LNG project.

Alaska LNG project teams are working to answer questions and fulfill requests for more detailed information from over a dozen federal and state agencies that submitted several hundred pages of comments for the teams to consider in their next round of draft "resource reports." The reports will be used to prepare the project's environmental impact statement.

The project's 2016 work plan includes gathering the necessary data and answering questions in preparation for submitting final environmental reports with the full application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Preparing the reports for regulators--covering air quality, water, soils, safety, construction plans, community impacts, and multiple other issues--is part of the $230 million 2016 work plan approved December 3, 2015, by Alaska LNG partners, which will include:

* Summer field work will continue along the 804-mile pipeline route from Prudhoe Bay to the proposed liquefaction plant at Nikiski on Cook Inlet. This would be the fourth summer in the field. Past work has included stream and wetlands surveys; drilling boreholes to learn about soils, ground stability and subsurface water; and looking for fault lines along the pipeline route. Alaska LNG is still determining where in the field its crews will be in 2016.

* Onshore geotechnical and geophysical work in the vicinity of the LNG plant site may include more boreholes, a groundwater hydrology study, and a shallow seismic study--focused on learning more about ground characteristics to select the best layout for plant equipment and construction plans with the least environmental impact.

* Offshore work, similar to 2015 efforts, will provide more details about Cook Inlet current and sediment characteristics, to assist with marine terminal design.

* Developing the project's contracting strategy for front-end engineering and design work (FEED), with the FEED decision currently anticipated in the second quarter of 2017. FEED is a billion-dollar-plus commitment for final design, blueprints, contracting documents, and permitting, providing sponsors with all the information they would need to make an investment decision on the $45 billion to $65 billion project.

* Evaluating a 48-inch-diameter gas pipeline, as requested by Alaska's governor...