RCA approves APP, KKPL connection

With two recent rulings by state regulators, Southcentral will soon have new gas supplies.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has approved a connection agreement between the Anchor Point Pipeline and the Kenai Kachemak Pipeline, and issued a notice of convenience and public necessity for Anchor Point Energy to operate the North Fork Pipeline.

The two rulings pave the way for Anchor Point Energy, a subsidiary of Armstrong Cook Inlet and its four partners, to sell natural gas into the Southcentral transmission grid. Armstrong operates the North Fork unit, 10 miles north of Homer.

Although the certificate does not go into effect until March 16, the RCA also issued a temporary certificate allowing Anchor Point Energy to make deliveries immediately.

Enstar said the immediate deliveries would displace non-firm gas supplies that it otherwise would have had to purchase on a daily basis using its new “gas bid system.”

In 2009, the RCA approved a supply contract between Enstar and Anchor Point Energy for the sale of 1.2 billion cubic feet of North Fork gas a year, up to a total of 10 bcf.

Since then, the companies have been building a new pipeline system to connect the field to the existing grid. Currently, the Southcentral transmission grid ends with the southern terminus of the Kenai Kachemak Pipeline at Happy Valley, southeast of Ninilchik.

The Anchor Point Pipeline, built by the Enstar-affiliate Alaska Pipeline Co., extends that reach to Anchor Point. The North Fork Pipeline connects to the Anchor Point Pipeline. KKPL is a subsidiary of Marathon Oil.

—Eric Lidji