Alaska LNG Gets Conditional Approval to Export

The Alaska LNG project marks another significant milestone with today’s announcement by the United States Department of Energy that it has conditionally authorized the Alaska LNG Project LLC to export liquefied natural gas to non-Free Trade Agreement countries.

The application to export up to 20 million metric tons per year of liquefied natural gas from Alaska for a 30-year period was submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy last July. Authorization to export to nations with existing free trade agreements with the U.S. was previously received in November 2014. Today’s announcement conditionally further expands the authorization to include non-Free Trade Agreement countries as well.

“We are very pleased with the progress this represents,” said Steve Butt, Alaska LNG senior project manager. “As with any large scale LNG project, access to as many markets as possible will improve the commercial viability of the proposed project.”

The Alaska LNG project would provide significant economic benefits to Alaskans including state revenues, new job opportunities and access to decades of in-state natural gas for homes and businesses in Alaska. The Alaska LNG project is anticipated to create up to 15,000 jobs during construction and approximately 1,000 jobs for the operation of the project.

The proposed project facilities include a liquefaction facility in the Nikiski area on the Kenai Peninsula, an 800-mile large diameter pipeline, up to eight compression stations, at least five take-off points for in-state gas delivery, a gas treatment plant located on the North Slope and transmission lines to transport gas from Prudhoe Bay and Point Thomson to the gas treatment plant.

The Alaska LNG project participants are the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) and affiliates of ExxonMobil, TransCanada, BP and ConocoPhillips.