CBC North. The Town of  Inuvik (NGP Photo, Inuvik Russian Orthodox Dome Church, Circa. 2003, and author) has announced it will renew its agreement with Inuvik Gas to distribute fuel to the town, but residents shouldn't expect lower gas bills, says the senior administrative officer. |
The Pebble Partnership (PLP) filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Alaska.
PLP asked the District Court to stop the EPA's move to pre-emptively veto the Pebble Project under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act.
As we have written, if the EPA succeeds in this overreach, virtually all construction projects will come to be at risk of preemptive project vetos, putting a final nail in the coffin of Constitutionally guaranteed, "due process".
Read the PLP filing here…. -dh
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Real "Energy Policy" Begins And Ends In The States. Commentary: Huge Russian – Chinese Natural Gas Sale Agreement Could Impact World Markets and Alaska Project Feasibility
We urge readers to absorb yesterday's Bloomberg report on the Russia-China, $400 billion gas purchase arrangement, By Robert Tuttle, Anna Shiryaevskaya and Isis Almeida.
(Also see World Energy News report and map and today's WSJ editorial.)
Our readers are well aware that Asian market demand will be almost exponentially increasing over the next 20 years. This owes to a growing Japanese appetite for natural gas in wake of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster, to growing industrial demand throughout the region, and to a trend of conversion from coal to gas fired electrical generation.
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Energy Guardian's James Felker said today that the President's latest FERC appointment, Norman Bay, may be in trouble. Here's how to see featured speakers of NARUC's upcoming meeting in Dallas: • Cheryl LaFleur, Acting Chair, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Mobile to host inaugural Gulf Coast Energy Forum June 5. |
Augmenting demand in Europe, will be the aftermath of a cold curtain of mistrust now trying to separate western European nations from Russian gas production.
The authors of the Bloomberg story point to the nearly half-trillion deal as a game changer for many reasons. Read about those reasons in their report.
But from our crow's nest looking down at Alaska's potential Alaska North Slope (ANS) LNG export project we see the Russian-Chinese deal as increasing the need for the most competitive, cheapest supplies of imported gas.
The competition could grow as more gas is discovered and developed in the Arctic. ExxonMobil's Imperial Oil, "…is assembling one of the most comprehensive oil and natural gas exploration programs in Canadian history," for Beaufort sea drilling, according to Gary Park's story in today's Petroleum News.
Could Canadian arctic natural gas supplies eventually find their way into an Alaska gas export project, or will they compete with it, we wonder? Since ExxonMobil owns about a third of Alaska's gas reserves, we would bet effort will be made to work together…as has been the history with the Arctic Gas project of the 1970s and later transportation schemes.
Those who are most competitive should end up with long term contracts first.
Those who are less competitive are more likely to be late signers with marginal pricing, with some even continuing to be long term owners of their own gas — or be reduced to selling it in spot markets.
Some could end up with stranded facilities, a risk to companies. In Alaska's case, since it could be an equity owner of the project, it will be risking public funds and political reputations on the vagaries of the international gas market.
At least, this could have the advantage of teaching governmental decision makers and citizens about the costs as well as the benefits of engaging in private market activity.
With the list of American and Canadian LNG project applications continuing to grow, one could envision the window of opportunity for sales of Alaska LNG to be diminishing, not improving, over the immediate term.
However, we defer to the investors who would certainly not let such an enormous project migrate from this early, pre engineering stage to a later open season without sufficient confidence that markets for Arctic gas do indeed exist.
On the other hand, if the current competitive gas export market continues to discriminate more and more against the most expensive player — Alaska — it may lead ANS gas marketers to once again reassess the feasibility and changing metrics of value added petrochemical projects within the 49th state.
After all, windows of opportunity do close and open, close again and open again.
-dh
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