Fire damages FNG Port Mackenzie plant

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A fire ripped through a maintenance shop adjacent the Fairbanks Natural Gas LNG plant at Port MacKenzie, north of Anchorage, early in the morning of Dec. 17. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, Dan Britton, president of Fairbanks Natural Gas, told Petroleum News. And the LNG plant, used to liquefy Cook Inlet natural gas for trucking to Fairbanks, was not impacted.

All natural gas used in Fairbanks passes through the Port MacKenzie facility.

At the time that Britton spoke to Petroleum News FNG was still working with the fire marshal, to determine when the Port MacKenzie plant could go back into operation. But Britton did not anticipate any interruption in gas supplies for Fairbanks gas consumers.

“We maintain in excess of five days of supply here in Fairbanks at any given time and we actually have about seven days (supply) right now, based on current inventories and weather,” Britton said. “… We’ll be working to get the plant re-started as soon as possible.”

In addition to maintaining reserve supplies of LNG in Fairbanks, FNG has contingency plans to bring in LNG from some facilities in the Lower 48, were an incident resulting in extended outage at Port MacKenzie to occur, Britton said.

Explosions reported at the Port MacKenzie facility during the fire incident are likely related to drums of oil located in the maintenance shop prior to dispatch to a recycling company, Britton said.

—Alan Bailey