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ANGDA submits spur line right-of-way application Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority applies to state for common carrier conditional right of way lease between Glennallen and Palmer Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority submitted an application April 4 for a common carrier conditional right-of-way lease for a 148-mile gas pipeline between Glennallen and Palmer. This would be a spur line to bring natural gas from a North Slope line into Southcentral Alaska and the authority said in its application that it plans to complete the spur line before field construction begins for a gas pipeline from the North Slope.
The authority is applying for a conditional right of way between Glennallen and Palmer because that right of way does not exist, Harold Heinze, the authority’s chief executive officer said at the authority’s April 4 board meeting in Anchorage.
Mike Thompson, acting state pipeline coordinator, accepted the application on behalf of the Department of Natural Resources. He told the board the process for a right-of-way lease includes extensive opportunity for public input.
The application will first be evaluated for completeness, a process which is expected to take about two weeks. The application will then be public noticed for 60 days. This initial public notice, Thompson said, is actually designed for competitors.
The department will do an analysis and draft the lease with conditions and stipulations. The draft lease then goes out for a 30-day comment period.
Thompson said the process should be complete sometime this fall. Line would be buried, 24-inch The contracting team which did the application work gave the board an overview. The line would be a 24-inch 2,500 pound per square inch X80 steel buried pipeline. Wall thickness would vary from greater than half an inch to an inch; there would be isolation valves 20 miles apart. Burial depth would be a minimum of 30 inches.
Heinze said that when the state completes its work and offers a right of way, the board will have to vote to accept the lease and to approve further work.
The application said the authority would be ready to begin pre-construction activities such as centerline staking, developing gravel sites and staging areas for pipeline materials during the summer/fall of 2006.
Winter construction (from Glennallen west to Squaw Creek) would begin in November 2006 and summer construction season would follow and be complete by the end of the summer of 2007.
“These starting dates are dependent upon how external factors beyond the control of ANGDA come into play,” the authority said in its application. Such factors include outcome of Stranded Gas Development Act negotiations between the state and applicants, “the urgency of the gas shortage in Cook Inlet, and the outcome of the FERC open season and applications to build a pipeline transporting North Slope natural gas to the Lower 48.” More line might need to be built The authority said in its application that its plan is to complete the Glennallen to Palmer spur line prior to field construction of the large pipeline from the North Slope.
The authority also said it would be prepared to build the connecting pipeline from the nearest point on the main line to Glennallen, but noted that the Alaska Gasline Port Authority pipeline would provide gas in Glennallen on its route from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.
If no pipeline is built from the North Slope, the authority’s third option is to “build pipeline from Glennallen to either Prudhoe Bay or Pt. Thomson.”
Estimated cost of the Palmer to Glennallen spur line is approximately $361 million, based on budget level cost estimates with a plus or minus 30 percent accuracy. The spur line would have an estimated $1.5 million annual cost for operations and maintenance. Heinze said that if the line had to be extended from Glennallen to Delta the cost would be about the same as the Palmer to Glennallen segment.
Heinze said the state right of way is expected by early this fall; during the next six to nine months the authority would prepare for construction, beginning with such steps as actually acquiring the right of way. Objections from Chickaloon residents The April 4 authority board meeting drew protests from three residents of Chickaloon, which is on the route of the proposed pipeline right of way. Heinze had talked about the proposed pipeline right of way at a Chickaloon Community Council meeting, and said he had talked to some 200 people at different community meetings along the proposed right of way route. The authority also hired a contractor to talk with residents along the proposed right of way.
The Chickaloon property owners told the board that they were concerned about the impact of the pipeline coming through their community. Chickaloon is an important place to its residents, not just a utility corridor, the board was told.
The Chickaloon residents were concerned about public notice as work on the application proceeds, and Heinze said that since the authority was turning in its application to the Department of Natural Resources, it was also handing over the public process to the department.
There was a question about making gas available in Chickaloon, and Heinze said it took a fairly sizeable investment to distribute gas locally, and that probably a community the size of Tok would be necessary to justify the investment. The authority said in its application that it had no plans to provide delivery services at intermediate points between Glennallen and Palmer, where gas would feed into the existing Enstar pipeline system which carries gas from the west side of Cook Inlet.
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