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Dubler, AGDC interim president, retires
Board hears cost reduction work, regulatory de-risking; AGDC looks for investor interest, with confidentiality agreements executed
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
At the end of a Feb. 20 Alaska Gasline Development Corp. board meeting, Dave Cruz, chairing the meeting in the absence of board Chair Doug Smith, said the board had received a retirement letter from Joe Dubler, interim president since early 2019, and would be reviewing options for succession in the next week.
The Dubler appointment was part of a change at AGDC under Gov. Mike Dunleavy. In addition to new commissioners on the board, Dunleavy replaced two public members and at the board’s January 2019 meeting it passed a resolution removing AGDC President Keith Meyer and named Dubler interim president.
Continued work In reviewing AGDC’s work plans for the board, Dubler said first quarter work efforts were continuing regulatory de-risking by pursuing major state and federal permits.
Included in first quarter work efforts are development of a draft tactical business plan and beginning work on documents for requests for interest on both the in-state line, ASAP, the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline, and AKLNG, the export project.
AGDC contracted with Fluor Corp. last fall to evaluate cost reduction opportunities and update the Class 4 cost estimate to fourth quarter 2019 dollars. Dubler told the board good progress was being made on reviewing cost estimates: Some costs have gone up and some costs are going down, he said.
Frank Richards, AGDC senior vice president of program management, said Fluor was progressing with its cost estimate reduction and with estimating costs to fourth quarter 2019 dollars.
Two of three workshop sessions have been held in Houston, Richards said, with focus areas the use of high value engineering centers, optimized contracting strategy and optimized project management team. He said the ExxonMobil team under the joint venture was 120 and would have grown, so one goal was to look for ways to streamline that.
LNG facility modularization and best country sourcing were also discussed.
He said alternatives were being considered for liquefaction technology, gas treatment technology and for optimization of CO2 compression.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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