Alaska Gasline Port Authority Vying for Ownership of Natural Gas Pipeline.

• Author: KANE, ROGER

In the 25 years since President Carter and the United States Congress first authorized building a natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the Lower 48, little has changed. A pipeline has not been built. Politicians, oil producers and the Alaska citizenry are still wrangling over route selection. State and federal governments are competing for oversight and natural gas is still commanding a handsome price wherever it is sold.

Gov. Tony Knowles, perhaps attempting to satisfy the promises Carter made in 1977, is calling for the construction of a gasline that would follow the trans-Alaska oil pipeline through Fairbanks to Delta Junction and then along the Alaska Highway through three Canadian provinces into the Lower 48. The pipeline project spans 4,800 miles, with 2,000 miles of pipeline in Canada, 800 miles in Alaska and the remainder in the Lower 48.

This highway route follows the all-but-abandoned Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System route Carter and Congress approved in 1977. There might be distinct differences in the pipeline Knowles wants to build, compared to the one Carter wanted to build, but the chosen routes are the same.

While Knowles pushes for a pipeline to follow the Alaska Highway route, the Alaska Gasline Port Authority has presented a structure for ownership that could improve the economics of any gasline that is built. It also has put together a pipeline project that it believes is economical today and will produce substantial benefits for the state, its citizens and the producers, well into the future.

AGPA Vies for Pipeline Ownership

The Port Authority has developed an ambitious gasline project that proposes building a suitable gas pipeline from the North Slope gas and oil fields to the Lower 48.

One branch would follow the trans-Alaska oil pipeline to Delta Junction (550 miles) and then run along the Alaska Highway to the Yukon border (150 miles) through Canada (2,000 miles) to the Lower 48.

The second branch would continue along the trans-Alaska oil pipeline to a liquefied natural gas plant at the Port of Valdez (256 miles).

Liquefied natural gas is made by cooling natural gas to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to condense it into a liquid. This is called liquefaction. The liquefaction process removes most of the water vapor, butane, propane, and other trace gases that are usually included in ordinary natural gas. The resulting LNG is usually more than 98 percent pure methane.

The LNG produced at the Valdez LNG plant would then be taken by ship to customers in Asian countries, Mexico and perhaps even on the West Coast of the United States. In addition, some of the LNG may be transported by barge or truck to customers in rural Alaska.

"It's time Alaskans learn what the Port Authority is about and what kind of vehicle it would be for the state," said William Walker, an Anchorage attorney representing the Port Authority.

In October 1999, voters in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the North Slope Borough and Valdez sanctioned the creation of the Alaska...