ANGDA funding Alaska value-added gas industry conferences set for next spring

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The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority is providing $250,000 in funds for an industry conference on potential Alaska in-state value-added gas industries, ANGDA CEO Harold Heinze told the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Sept. 8.

The tri-borough mayors of Anchorage, Kenai Peninsula Borough and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are sponsoring the conference which is being organized by the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., Heinze said.

Heinze told Petroleum News that the conference is a follow up to a re-run of an ANDGA study into the viability of value added industries in Alaska — following the run up in oil and other commodity prices over the past couple of years the revamped study pointed to the potential viability of gas-related chemical production. The idea now is to invite managers from petrochemical companies to Alaska to generate interest in locating major petrochemical manufacturing plants in Alaska using North Slope gas, he said.

Bill Popp, president and CEO of AEDC, told Petroleum News that the conference is tentatively scheduled for April 28 and 29 in Anchorage’s new Dena’ina convention center.

This will be a great opportunity to bring all the players from the global petrochemical industry to Alaska, Popp said.

Petrochemical facilities might in the future obtain North Slope ethane as a petrochemical feedstock through a spur gas line into Southcentral Alaska. However, Popp said that he does not expect the conference to result in firm commitments to spur line usage — the conference is really intended to create interest in the concept.

“It is an important first step to find out if we have interest in first bidding on (gas) spur line capacity,” he said.

The fact that Southcentral Alaska is 1,000 miles closer to the North Slope than potential petrochemical production sites elsewhere gives Alaska a significant advantage in the factory-gate cost of industrial feedstock such as ethane, Popp said. That price advantage could offset any heightened cost that results from operating in Alaska or the cost of transporting the industrial products to market.

The Agrium fertilizer plant on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska’s only previous value-added gas industry facility, closed at the end of 2007 because of Cook Inlet gas shortages. Lisa Parker, Agrium’s specialist for U.S. government and community relations, told Petroleum News Sept. 9, that Agrium would be interested in restarting its Kenai operations were North Slope gas to become available.

“If a spur line is built, Agrium would be interested in bidding during an open season,” Parker said.

—Alan Bailey