FNG moving ahead on North Slope LNG

Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC continues to pursue a liquefied natural gas project from the North Slope, the company told the Regulatory Commission of Alaska recently.

The lone natural gas utility serving the Fairbanks area is aiming to have the project in place before its existing supply contract in Cook Inlet expires on May 31, 2013.

Fairbanks Natural Gas’ sister company Polar LNG is beginning work this summer on a plant and associated pipeline to liquefy North Slope gas to be trucked to Fairbanks.

In a letter to the RCA, Fairbanks Natural Gas said work on the foundation for the plant began this summer at a pad the company previously leased, and that construction is currently scheduled for summer 2013. Polar LNG also plans to build a 3.8-mile pipeline from Flow Station 1 to the plant. The company expects to apply for a right-of-way lease in the near future, start construction this winter and complete work the following winter.

Supply contract in place

Fairbanks Natural Gas also told the RCA that a previously proposed sale of the company to the Alaska Gasline Port Authority “is not progressing toward closing.”

The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. recently released a report proposing a route and estimating cost information for a gas pipeline from the North Slope to Anchorage. That report estimated that consumers in Fairbanks could end up paying less than half what they pay now for the natural gas that Fairbanks Natural Gas trucks up from Southcentral.

“We don’t think it impacts what we’re working on right now” because the project is still theoretical, Fairbanks Natural Gas President Dan Britton told Petroleum News July 13.

—Eric Lidji