BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and TransCanada have met benchmarks for progress on a natural gas pipeline, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said in a statement this afternoon.

The governor had called on the companies to provide details by Feb. 15 on the size of the pipe, the daily volume of gas, location of a gas treatment plant, number of compression stations, size and scope of liquefaction plant and LNG storage facilities and number of off-take points for gas for local use by Alaska communities.

The companies said in a joint letter today that they “have completed the concept selection phase.”

Details provided by the companies include:

The pipeline is specified at 42-inch diameter, with a design rate of 3-3.5 billion cubic feet per day, some 800 miles in length mostly underground with up to eight compressor stations.

The gas treatment plant would be on the North Slope near Prudhoe Bay.

The liquefaction plant would have a capacity of 15-18 million tons per year with three trains.

There would be two LNG storage tanks at 160,000 cubic meters per tank and a terminal with one loading jetty and two berths.

There would be five off-take points along the pipeline route with a design rate of 250-500 million cubic feet per day “based on demand.”

The companies repeated the capital investment they released last year — an estimated $45-$65 billion.

The governor noted that his next benchmark is this spring, when the companies are required to finalize an agreement to enter the pre-front-end engineering and design phase, followed by a full season of field work this summer.

The companies said they were working toward the next decision points, but repeated that the project would require “a competitive, predictable and durable oil and gas fiscal environment” to compete in global markets.

—Kristen Nelson

See story in Feb. 24 issue, available online at 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 22 at www.PetroleumNews.com