|
Execs differ on when Alaska gas will flow; Yeager upbeat on Mackenzie line
Petroleum News
Senior pipeline executives at a Ziff Energy conference Nov. 9 in Calgary were reportedly in agreement on the United States’ need for natural gas from both the North Slope and the Mackenzie Delta, but they disagree on when Alaska gas will flow to market — 2012 to 2014 or later.
According to news reports from the conference, leading industry participants did agree, however, that the $7 billion Mackenzie line would be built before the $12 billion to $20 billion Alaska line, an important conclusion since many observers believe that if the Alaska gasline was built first the Mackenzie project would be put on indefinite hold because the Alaska line’s capacity, four times that of the Mackenzie, could meet the U.S. and Alberta’s natural gas needs for at least a decade or more. Yeager says Mackenzie first Michael Yeager, a senior vice-president at Canada’s Imperial Oil and the new man in charge of Imperial’s participation in the Mackenzie line, told conference attendees that gas should be flowing down the Mackenzie Valley by late 2009 or early 2010 — as compared to 2014 or 2015 for gas moving from Alaska’s North Slope.
“Our resolve is firmer than it has ever been that this project is doable,” Yeager said of the Mackenzie gasline in his first public appearance since taking charge of the project last summer. He pointed to his recent success in getting a pipeline completed in Chad after predecessors had worked unsuccessfully for decades with several African countries to get the oil line built, a situation he likens to the circumstances surrounding the proposed Mackenzie gasline. TransCanada said 2012 possible Hal Kvisle, president and chief executive officer of TransCanada PipeLines, said the Alaska gasline can be completed by 2012 if Canada’s Northern Pipeline Act is used along with enabling Alaska legislation. (TransCanada bought Foothills Pipe Lines, which holds certificates from a 1970’s project, for the Canadian portion of the Alaska Highway route.)
A North Slope pipeline could be in place by 2012, Kvisle said, if his company gets the go-ahead from the state of Alaska and the North Slope gas producers in 2005.
TransCanada has said it would use existing and expanded pipeline infrastructure to move gas from Alberta to the Lower 48 states vs. building a new line to Chicago, which has been proposed by the North Slope producers. BP Canada exec says 2014 or later BP Canada vice president of Alaska-Canada gas pipelines, Ken MacDonald, said that under a best-case scenario North Slope gas won’t flow until 2014. He said it would be about nine years from a decision to proceed to pipeline start-up. Projections of 2012 or 2013 are not realistic, MacDonald said.
He also said Canada’s National Energy Board would be the best regulatory course. Relying on the Northern Pipeline Act could raise concerns about litigation, MacDonald said.
| 