Enstar, FNG look to extend contract

Two Alaska natural gas companies want state regulators to extend a special contract that sends Cook Inlet natural gas to Fairbanks.

Enstar Natural Gas Co. and Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC want to extend their special contract for six months, until the end of 2008.

The two companies and state regulators orchestrated the special contract in 2006 after Fairbanks Natural Gas lost its previous supplier on short notice.

Fairbanks Natural Gas trucks liquefied natural gas from Cook Inlet to Fairbanks.

The original contract is set to expire on June 30, 2008, which doesn’t give Fairbanks Natural Gas enough time to finish building a new liquefaction plant at Prudhoe Bay and start buying natural gas from Exxon on a 10-year contract.

That Exxon contract doesn’t go into effect until 2009.

Fairbanks Natural Gas originally looked for a 10-month extension to the Enstar contract.

Fairbanks Natural Gas has already entered into a contract with an unnamed Cook Inlet natural gas company to start supplying gas on April 1, 2009, company President Dan Britton told Petroleum News in February.

—Eric Lidji