Gas pipeline backers head to Asia to drum up interest in North Slope gas

In late March, Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Hank Hove went on a two-week trip to gauge the Far East’s interest in liquefied natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope.

Hove is chairman of the Alaska Gasoline Port Authority. He was accompanied by Valdez Mayor Dave Cobb, representatives of contracting giant Bechtel and two financial consultants.

Cobb said, “We had numerous individuals from a law firm (Omelveny and Meyers) as advisers and interpreters. We also had several Bechtel employees from the Far East that met us there and ably assisted us, providing translation and analysis of the market.”

The group’s purpose was to visit companies to explain the proposal to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez.

“It was a very good trip,” Cobb said. “We had 21 meetings with all different gas buyers and gas users. We started in Tawain; went to Hong Kong; then to Shen-zhen, China; then to Beijing; then returned to Seoul, (South) Korea; and then to Osaka, Japan; Nagoya, Japan; and Tokyo, Japan.”

According to Cobb, the trip was a success. “We had very good discussions. The market was how we perceived it to be. We feel the demand is excellent for Alaska.”

Laying groundwork, not signing contracts

“We are laying the groundwork I hope will evolve into a business relationship,” Hove told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Before the trip, Hove said he did not expect any contracts or letters of intent to be signed but as a step toward coaxing Far East clients toward those contracts.

“We are the only state in the country that is able to export LNG, so that is very attractive to other companies in the world,” Hove said.

Cobb said the group will now work at finalizing cost estimates and economic models “to get final numbers that we can go back and present to the owners and sellers of gas so we can keep the project moving and make sure to get Alaska’s gas to the marketplace.”