|
AGDC names Joe Dubler interim president; Keith Meyer dismissed
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The board of directors of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. passed a resolution at its Jan. 10 meeting, relieving Keith Meyer of his duties as AGDC president and naming Joe Dubler as interim president, effective immediately.
Dubler, who has been serving as executive vice president of finance and administration for Cook Inlet Housing Authority, held senior leadership positions at AGDC between 2010 and 2016, including vice president of commercial operations and chief financial officer.
In a release after the meeting the board said Dubler would begin his new position on a full-time basis in mid-February after a transition period.
“Joe has the right experience to advance AGDC’s mission of commercializing Alaska’s vast but stranded North Slope gas supply for the benefit of all Alaskans, including access to affordable, cleaner, reliable energy and new revenue to fuel Alaska’s future,” AGDC board Chair Doug Smith said in the statement.
Meyer was named AGDC president in June 2016 and led the corporation’s efforts under Gov. Bill Walker to base a state-owned Alaska LNG project on sales to China, with Chinese entities providing project financing in exchange for LNG.
New board officers The board has new officers, with Doug Smith its new chair.
Prior to holding an executive session, and then passing the resolution replacing Meyer with Dubler, the board had voted in the new slate of officers: Smith as board chair; Dan Coffey, vice chair; and Warren Christian, secretary and treasurer. Smith and Coffey were named to the board by Gov. Mike Dunleavy earlier in January, replacing two of the board’s five public members, Hugh Short and Joey Merrick. Short had been vice chair of the board and Merrick had been secretary/treasurer.
Dave Cruz, previous board chair, is the only remaining member from the original board appointed by Gov. Sean Parnell in 2013; Christian and David Wight were named to the board by Walker.
Commercial update The board heard updates from Lieza Wilcox, vice president commercial and economics, and Frank Richards, senior vice president of program management.
Wilcox said they started focusing on gas supplies in 2018, with the ultimate plan to purchase from North Slope producers and the state. AGDC has binding term sheet agreements with BP and ExxonMobil, she said, and has progressed discussions with ConocoPhillips - and with the state of Alaska through the Department of Natural Resources.
Negotiations are ongoing through the joint development agreement, which was recently extended for six months, Wilcox said. And letters of intent have been signed with other potential customers.
(The JDA is the agreement signed in Beijing in November 2017 by the state, AGDC, China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), CIC Capital Corp. and the Bank of China Ltd. to work toward an agreement for development of Alaska LNG with 75 percent of that LNG going to China, and a goal of definitive agreements by the end of 2018.)
Wilcox said Goldman Sachs and the Bank of China were engaged as global capital coordinators and the finance model had been reviewed by Goldman Sachs. She said the equity pitch book for the project is nearly complete.
Activities for 2019 include reaching royalty-in-kind contract terms with DNR; concluding gas supply agreements; pursuing definitive agreements for LNG sales; and raising strategic project equity, Wilcox said.
Technical, regulatory update AGDC has responsibility for two natural gas projects.
The Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline, authorized by the Legislature in 2010, is an in-state gas pipeline designed to provide North Slope natural gas to Southcentral Alaska in a 36-inch pipeline with a lateral line to Fairbanks. The Southcentral line would tie into an Enstar line.
Richards said AGDC expects a joint record of decision for ASAP from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management in January after the partial federal government shutdown ends, allowing BLM to get back to work.
The Alaska LNG project includes a 48-inch diameter pipeline carrying North Slope gas to Nikiski where a liquefaction plant would be built, a line from Point Thomson and a gas treatment plant on the North Slope.
In 2014, under Gov. Sean Parnell, the Legislature authorized the state to take an equity position in an Alaska LNG project. That project, led by ExxonMobil, included BP, ConocoPhillips and TransCanada. The state bought out TransCanada in 2015 under Walker, who took over as governor in late 2014. In late 2016, early 2017, under Walker’s leadership, the state took over the project after the producers declined to move ahead.
AGDC submitted an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the combined pipeline and liquefaction project in April 2017 and since then has been responding to information requests from the agency. FERC has scheduled release of a draft environmental impact statement for the Alaska LNG project in February, with a final EIS in November. A record of decision would follow in February or March of 2020, Richards said.
FERC is not impacted by the federal shutdown, he said, and AGDC has received no indication from FERC that it will impact the schedule.
Funding for continued work by AGDC is an issue, and the agency has stretched existing funding as much as possible. The board did not hear a finance report at its Jan. 10 meeting.
- KRISTEN NELSON
| 