The joint venture between TransCanada Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to conduct a solicitation of interest to find parties that might be willing to make future capacity commitments on a North Slope natural gas pipeline, the groups announced Monday.
The non-binding solicitation will run from Aug. 31 to Sept. 14.
The solicitation will gauge industry interest in a pipeline system from the Alaska North Slope “to a gas liquefaction terminal at a tidewater location in south-central Alaska or to an interconnection point near the border of British Columbia and Alberta in Canada.”
The Alaska Pipeline Project ran its first binding open season for the project from April 30, 2010 to July 30, 2010, but terminated the effort in May 2012.
Although producers reportedly made conditional bids for capacity on a pipeline from the North Slope to Alberta, TransCanada ultimately determined “producers are not prepared to make commercial commitments to the Alberta Project at this time.”
Under its Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license, TransCanada must assess market interest in a North Slope gas pipeline every two years following its first open season.
– Eric Lidji