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ANGDA puts Gubik route work out to bid Project covers some Enstar work; ANGDA seeks to make more routing information public; contract also covers Nenana, Glenn Highway Eric Lidji Petroleum News
The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority wants to study routes for a pipeline and road connecting the Gubik gas field to existing infrastructure along the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the Dalton Highway.
The public corporation plans to spend up to $100,000 on the contract, which went out to bid June 27. The money will come from a $4 million allocation state lawmakers approved earlier this year specifically to help ANGDA weigh the various options for delivering natural gas to in-state markets and residents.
Gubik is a prospective gas field in the foothills of the Brooks Range currently being explored by Anadarko Petroleum. For most of the year the field has been thrown around as a way to supply in-state markets with natural gas without tapping the North Slope.
Enstar Natural Gas Co. is spending $6 million this year gathering field data about a possible pipeline connecting Gubik to its distribution grid in Southcentral Alaska.
But ANGDA doesn’t see its project as “repetitive,” according to CEO Harold Heinze.
Heinze said the work fits with ANGDA’s broader and longer efforts to promote a natural gas system across the state. He called the Gubik project a “proactive” attempt to increase the pool of public information to a critical mass that might spur development.
“I think it’s of value for us to form at least some idea,” Heinze said.
Over the past year, ANGDA has spent more of its budget than usual toward projects designed to gather data for public consumption with the hope of getting entrepreneurs to take the baton. ANGDA recently put out a contract for a propane coordinator to create a business plan for a wholesale propane facility on the North Slope.
Enstar does see the ANGDA project as repetitive, and “a little bit frustrating” to boot, according to spokesman Curtis Thayer.
“It’s a waste of government money,” Thayer said. “What are they going to find different than what we find out?”
Thayer said Enstar, as the largest natural gas distributor in the state, is prepared to handle a Gubik pipeline, and would like to see the $4 million allocation go toward figuring out ways to maximize that pipeline through value-added industries, the kinds Enstar doesn’t have experience managing.
“At the end of the day, there has got to be some synergies there,” Thayer said.
Nenana and Glenn Hwy., too In addition to routing a pipeline from Gubik to existing infrastructure, the ANGDA contract includes two other projects related to in-state gas issues.
The successful applicant will look at preliminary routes for connecting gas fields near Nenana to the population center in Fairbanks, as well as review existing fieldwork from proposed spur line routes along the Parks Highway, the trans-Alaska oil pipeline corridor and the Glenn Highway to look for possible trouble spots.
“We think it’s important to understand the alternatives,” Heinze said.
The contract is set to begin in August, with the majority of the work to be completed by the start of the year.
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