Kenai LNG, Institute of North honored

The Kenai Liquefied Natural Gas plant and the Institute of the North were among five recipients of North Star Awards for International Excellence at the Export Alaska luncheon on May 28.

“Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin launched the North Star Award this year to honor Alaska businesses, schools and other organizations that have improved life in Alaska through international activity, the governor’s office said in a press release.

The Kenai LNG plant won for its work as an exporter.

Built in Nikiski in 1969 and owned by ConocoPhillips and Marathon, the plant started life as the largest LNG facility in the world and established a market for LNG in Japan using new LNG technology.

Lyndsey Clark is the Cook Inlet Operations Manager for ConocoPhillips.

The Institute of the North won for its advancements in transportation.

The Institute is responsible for international conferences in Alaska, Russia, Canada and the United Kingdom to advance circumpolar transportation and telecommunications.

Following a 2006 analysis indicating that Anchorage could provide expanded air service to the Russian Far East from the U.S. and Canada, Vladivostok Air officials began direct flights between Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Anchorage starting this summer.

The Institute facilitated the first international digital weather camera demonstration project. A camera installed in a critical mountain pass flyway near the Alaska-British Columbia border linked to an international weather kiosk at Whitehorse Airport in the Yukon, allowing allow pilots to make crucial go/no go decisions that save lives. 

Ben Ellis is the executive director of the Institute.

 —Petroleum News