7-9-17 Memos Won't Get An Alaska Gas Pipeline

7-9-17 Memos Won’t Get An Alaska Gas Pipeline

A Memo Does Not An Energy Project Make, according to Paul Jenkins who provides this viewpoint in an ADN op-ed piece this weekend. -dh

Memo to: bla, bla, bla. Non committal. Bla, bla. With conditions. Bla, bla. If economically feasible. Bla, bla. We’d love to have Alaska gas under the right economic conditions. Bla, bla. Assuming pipeline/LNG tariff and taxes and producer prices are acceptable to us. Bla, bla…. “This project is Alaska’s get well card,” bla, bla….

Reading the breathless news that Korea Gas Corp. and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. have inked yet another in a long line of memorandums of understanding for the proposed $45 billion Alaska LNG Project, one could be forgiven for thinking things were going just swimmingly.

In reality, the memorandum was little more than state officials putting lipstick on their favorite pig. The non-binding agreement — and the administration, some say, expected much more — amounts to diddly.

The Walker administration is pressing hard to build the massive project aimed at moving North Slope gas south through a pipeline to a liquefaction plant in Nikiski and then to Asian markets by ship. This, despite its three partners, ExxonMobil, BP and ConocoPhillips, bailing out after spending hundreds of millions of dollars. The project, they said, did not pencil out.
The announcement of the MOU — an informal agreement signifying little more than an exchange of business cards and a free drink – smacks of public relations spin.

The truth is Korea’s state-owned Korea Gas Corp., or KOGAS, is seeking investments in potential LNG projects not only in Alaska, but in Texas and Louisiana. Why the push?

[State gas line agency applies for permit to build Alaska LNG project]

South Korea, the ninth-largest importer in the world, is Asia’s fourth-largest economy. It is the world’s second-largest LNG buyer, with Qatar and Australia providing most of it, LNG World News reports. KOGAS is the world’s largest LNG-importing company and operates four LNG regasification terminals and 2,900 miles of natural gas pipelines in South Korea. KOGAS is hustling to ensure future supplies — and has been busy.

SEE FULL STORY HERE….

By wpnorthern|2017-07-08T11:25:01-09:00July 8th, 2017|LNG|0 Comments

About the Author: wpnorthern

Dave Harbour, publisher of Northern Gas Pipelines, is a former Chairman of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, a Commissioner Emeritus of NARUC, NARUC's Official Representative to IOGCC and Vice Chairman of NARUC's Gas Committee. He served as Gas Committee Chairman of the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners. He also served as commissioner of the Anchorage Bicentennial Commission and the Anchorage Heritage Land Bank Commission. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree: English, at Colorado State University, a Master of Science Degree: Communications-Journalism at Murray State University and graduated from Utility Regulatory School for Commissioners at Michigan State University. He served as a Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at Alaska Pacific University, taught bank marketing classes at the University of Alaska and was an English teacher at Los Alamos High School. Harbour served in ranks of Private - Captain during a 4-year assignment with the Army in Korea, Idaho, Georgia and Fort Meade and received the Meritorious Service Medal among other commendations. Harbour is also a past Chairman of the Alaska Council on Economic Education, the Alaska Oil & Gas Association Government Affairs Committee, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the Export Council of Alaska and the Department of Commerce's District Export Council. He is a past President of the Alaska Press Club, American Bald Eagle Foundation, Consumer Energy Alliance-Alaska and Common Sense for Alaska. Harbour was instrumental in founding the American Bald Eagle Research Institute (UAS), the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, the Downtown Anchorage Business Partnership, and Arctic Power. He also served as CEO of several small Alaska organizations, including the Anchorage Parking Authority and Action Security, Inc. Harbour is also Chairman Emeritus of the Alaska Oil & Gas Congress. Harbour's wife, Nancy, is a professional, performing arts administrator and his three boys, Todd, Benjamin and William work in the fields of environmental management, energy marketing and medicine.