ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips and TransCanada said in a statement this morning that they have begun summer field work as part of activities associated with a staged pre-front end engineering design, or pre-FEED, for a liquefied natural gas project to bring North Slope natural gas to Southcentral and have “completed commercial agreements to support both the summer field work and other activities to further advance the project.”
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has been calling on the companies to meet benchmarks for a North Slope gas pipeline project.
In his 2013 State of the State address Alaska Parnell called on the project partners to select a concept for an all-Alaska project, the LNG project he proposed in 2011, by mid-February, and further called on the companies to finalize an agreement to advance to pre-FEED by this spring, ensuring a full summer field season.
In a Feb. 15 statement Parnell said the companies had met the benchmark he set of providing details by Feb. 15 on the size of the pipe, the daily volume of gas, location of a gas treatment plant, number of compression stations, size and scope of liquefaction plant and LNG storage facilities and number of off-take points for gas for local use by Alaska communities.
The joint work began in March 2012, the companies said today, and they expect total expenditures from last March through the end of 2013 will total $80 million to $100 million.
The companies have pegged the cost of the project at $45 billion to $65 billion-plus.
—Kristen Nelson