Exporting LNG: bringing gas to market for the Alaska LNG Project.

• Author: Slaten, Russ
• Position: OIL & GAS

The Alaska LNG Project--although it may be about ten years before first gas--continues to build momentum as Alaska Governor Bill Walker attended the LNG Producer-Consumer Conference in Tokyo, Japan, during the week of September 14. Walker met with executives from Japanese companies, utilities, and governmental entities and more--including Itochu Corporation; Japan Oil, Gas and Metals Corporation; Tokyo Electric Power Company; and Tokyo Gas--during his time in Japan.

"No one is going to tell the story of Alaska like Alaska will tell the story. We're an owner-state, and it's time we act like an owner-state. What an owner-state does is show up and make sure the world is aware of the product we have available," said Walker at a press conference the Friday before his departure.

Additionally, the Alaska LNG Project reached another significant milestone in May when the US Department of Energy issued a conditional authorization to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries.

"The scale of this project holds great economic potential for Alaska, while boosting energy security for our trading partners. For example, the export volume that is anticipated in the Alaska LNG export authorization is equivalent to 22 percent of Japan's daily LNG import volumes in 2014," said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Deputy Secretary of Energy, at a federal roundtable on LNG organized by US Senator Lisa Murkowski at the Loussac Library in Anchorage on May 28.

The authorization allows the project to export LNG, up to 2.55 billion standard cubic feet per day or 20 million metric tons per year for a period of thirty years, but is still subject to environmental review and final regulatory approval.

"Our long-time partner in trade, Japan, doesn't have a free trade agreement at this time, so what this allows us to do is move forward with the confidence that this project is real, that we can actually work to make commitments--to sell--Alaska's North Slope gas, and not just to Japan, but to anyone around the globe," said US Senator Lisa Murkowski at a press availability following the Alaska Oil and Gas Association Annual Luncheon on the same day.

The project's costs reached $243 million through August, with 75 percent of the initial design scope complete and about 50 percent of 2015 field work complete. Pre-FEED is expected to cost about $500 million total with work expected to be complete in mid-2016.

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