Commission closes Nuiqsut gas pipeline utility docket

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska said Feb. 22 that it is denying “without prejudice” and closing the docket on an application from the North Slope Borough to operate the Nuiqsut gas pipeline under the Alaska Public Utilities Regulatory Act.

The application was filed in 2001, the commission said, and Nuiqsut Natural Gas Pipeline was told to file a completed application at least six months before it began offering service.

The commission said it ordered a status report after two years. That report, filed in November 2003, said the pipeline from the Alpine central gas processing plant to Nuiqsut had been completed and the conditioning plant at Nuiqsut and the distribution system in Nuiqsut would be completed by the spring of 2004.

Last November Nuiqsut Natural Gas Pipeline told the commission that problems had caused delays in construction, and although the conditioning plant was partially installed and most of the distribution was completed “there were delays in its gas supply contract negotiations.”

After more than four years, the commission said, the original incomplete application “is no longer of value to us.”

A complete application will have to be filed six months before service begins, the commission said.