Torgerson nails coffin on Beaufort Sea route

Kay Cashman

Backers of the “over-the-top” natural gas pipeline route got an icy reception Jan. 16 from Alaska Sen. John Torgerson when they said they had submitted plans for a northern route gasline to Canada’s National Energy Board — the first of the three pipeline groups to make a preliminary filing to the board.

The plan, filed by Calgary-based ArctiGas Resources LP, the Canadian affiliate of Houston-based Arctic Resources Co., on behalf of the Northern Route Gas Pipeline Corp., includes a 350-mile link under the Beaufort Sea connecting the North Slope with the Mackenzie Delta. (See full story on filing in the Jan. 20 issue of PNA.)

Last year the Legislature passed and the governor signed into law a bill “prohibiting leases under the Right-of-Way Leasing Act on state land in or adjacent to the Beaufort Sea.” The bill, representing the Legislature’s opposition to an over-the-top pipeline route, had all 20 senators as sponsors and garnered only two no votes in the House.

Torgerson told fellow members of the Alaska Legislature’s Joint Committee on Gas Pipelines at its first meeting Jan. 16 that since ArctiGas Resources wasn’t “paying attention” to the legislation passed last session, he was going to look into drafting additional legislation that would “put the final nail into the over-the-top route.”