Tapping into Alaska's gas.

• Author: Jones, Patricia

Some say a gas pipeline will be in place within the next decade, likely sooner.

Never has the future looked so bright for those Alaskans hoping to participate in constructing another pipeline across the state.

Two development teams-each with members that tout impressive experience in constructing and operating gas pipelines-are working on plans to extract North Slope natural gas and transport it to buyers in Asian countries. The first is a group led by Alaskan mayors and prospective developers and the second by Arco Alaska Inc.

"I see nothing but positive implications to the State of Alaska," said Jeff Lowenfels, president and CEO of Yukon Pacific Corp., a company that has been involved with both leading groups interested in tapping North Slope gas.

Such interest, which has been going on for more than two decades, has transformed into a flurry of recent activity, according to Lowenfels.

"There has been a paradigm shift in this project," he said, during a three-day exploratory meeting held in Fairbanks in mid August.

There, the mayors of three towns, all in communities where the existing oil pipeline passes through, joined forces with Yukon Pacific and other potential developers to announce their collective push for a gas pipeline project.

Voters in Fairbanks, Valdez and the North Slope Borough will decide this month whether their respective communities should create a port authority to build and operate a gas pipeline.

If approved, the port authority will contract with construction and operating firms to build the pipeline, most likely Bechtal Enterprises Inc. and Williams Cos., two of the world's largest construction and pipeline companies. Money to cover construction costs will come from the sale of revenue bonds.

Profits would go to state and municipal government coffers, not to a foreign oil company and its shareholders, the mayors said.

A publicly owned gas line means no federal income taxes would be paid, which effectively drops capital costs by about $3 billion, said Rep. Jim Whitaker, R-Fairbanks, who participated in the pipeline conference.

"With public ownership, the numbers change," he said. "This pipeline is going to get built. It's not a question of whether it will be, but when. And I'll tell you, its going to be sooner rather than later."

Gas by 2006?

Hank Hove, mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, estimates that construction will start within the next five years. "This project will be up and running before anyone...