The state of Alaska has received a third application under its Stranded Gas Development Act, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski said during a March 31 press conference.
The Alaska Gasline Port Authority, the governor said, is the latest applicant.
“Now we welcome, obviously, all applications that come in under the stranded gas law that was passed by the Legislature and this will be assigned to one of our teams and this will obviously take a good deal of evaluation.”
The state is currently negotiating with the North Slope producers on their application, and also with TransCanada.
There has been interest in whether negotiations could be completed in time to get a contract to the Legislature, and the governor acknowledged that the addition of a third application would affect he administration’s negotiation schedule.
“I might say with the introduction of this particular addition, why clearly we’re going to have a hard time meeting the legislative deadline” to have a contract to the Legislature before it adjourns in May.
The governor said he hopes to make an announcement in a couple of weeks, in conjunction with the Legislature, on the time schedule for a contract.
Port authority an LNG project
The producers and TransCanada are both discussing a pipeline to Canada to deliver natural gas to Lower 48 markets.
The port authority’s All-Alaska Gas Pipeline Project includes construction of an 800-mile gas pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to Valdez where a gas liquefaction facility would be built to export liquefied natural gas to the West Coast.
In December the port authority announced it had signed a development agreement with Sempra LNG, a unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, to assist in the development of the authority’s project and to market the related LNG. The port authority also said in December that it has an option to purchase rights of way and associated permits from Yukon Pacific for building the gas pipeline, which would run parallel to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
The port authority has been in discussions with the state under a protocol agreement signed last May.
