Calls for Alaska, Canada to form northern gas alliance

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

In agreeing to band together on energy issues, such as natural gas pipelines out of the Arctic, Canada’s western and northern governments also indicated they would welcome Alaska’s participation.

The premiers of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut agreed at their annual conference July 6-8 to cooperate in marketing their region as a “secure supplier of oil, gas and hydroelectricity” to North America, the Asia/Pacific and other global markets.

Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie said the first step towards an energy alliance of the provincial and territorial governments would also “include working closely with the state of Alaska.”

The same case was made in Calgary July 9 by Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski, who called for a northern gas alliance of Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon and Northwest Territories to make a case to the U.S. and Canadian governments to develop northern gas.

A keynote speaker at an Interstate Natural Gas Association of America conference, Murkowski said consumers and industry stand to benefit from a pipeline to move North Slope gas to market.

Without a steady supply of Alaska gas to help keep pipelines out of Alberta operating at capacity in the decades ahead, Canadian producers could find themselves paying higher tariffs to get their own gas to market, he said.

Murkowski said it is no secret that pipelines out of Western Canada will have room in the years ahead as production declines in the Western Canada Sedimentary basin’s mature fields.

He said neither Alaska nor Western Canada “can afford to wait indefinitely to begin commercializing northern gas,” given the rising North American interest in imported liquefied natural gas.

“Alaska isn’t looking to compete with Canada for market share, but rather to help maximize existing pipeline investments so that we can all share in a growing market,” Murkowski said.