Kenai Peninsula group pushes Cook Inlet gasline terminus

Kristen Nelson

Kenai Peninsula Mayor Dale Bagley said Feb. 15 in Anchorage that he would propose an additional $50,000 toward bringing a gas pipeline to Cook Inlet if the project moved forward and it seemed appropriate to establish a port authority for it. The borough has already authorized $100,000 to be spent in promoting Cook Inlet as an appropriate terminus for the gas pipeline. The Alaska North Slope LNG Project, a partnership of ARCO Alaska Inc., BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., Phillips Petroleum Co., Foothills Pipeline and Marubeni Corp., is deciding between Valdez and Nikiski as a terminus, Bagley said.

In addition to providing continued jobs and a secure source of natural gas for Southcentral, he said, a Cook Inlet terminus would also provide a secure source of gas for industrial projects.

Mike Navarre, former Kenai Peninsula mayor, said secure supplies of gas were an economic issue for the region. An iron ore reduction project decided not to select Cook Inlet as a site because there wasn’t a secure enough source of natural gas and remaining Cook Inlet gas was an issue raised when Phillips renewed its export license. That issue, Navarre said, will come up again when the company renews again in five years.

The Cook Inlet Pipeline Terminus Group can be reached in Kenai at (907) 283-6451 and at www.alaskagasline.org; Betsy Arbelovsky is the group’s executive director.