Feds finish draft of gas pipeline study

The U.S. Department of Energy recently completed a draft report looking at ways the federal government could build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska if the state government or private industry balks on the project.

The study is required under a provision of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act, the 2004 law clarifying the process and removing certain boundaries toward construction of a pipeline to market natural gas produced on the North Slope.

The study looks at the feasibility of the federal government creating a corporation to build the pipeline and also at the various structures for the federal government to finance and own the pipeline.

The Fossil Energy Division of the Department of Energy began work on the study back April 2006, as required by the act.

The study is currently in an “inter-agency review” and will eventually be submitted to the U.S. Congress. Department of Energy officials would not give a timeline for when the study will be complete.

—Eric Lidji