Anchorage (Platts)--15Nov2012/358 pm EST/2058 GMT

Companies working on a possible Alaska natural gas pipeline and LNG export project are hoping to select a more defined concept for their project next spring, a ConocoPhillips executive said Thursday.

BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil -- the three major North Slope producers -- and TransCanada Corp., a pipeline company, are working on plans for an 800-mile large-diameter pipeline to a south Alaska port, where a large LNG export project would be built.

"Our target is to have a concept selected by spring, 2013," Nick Olds, ConocoPhillips' vice president for North Slope operations and development, told Alaska business and community leaders at a conference in Anchorage sponsored by the Resource Development Council, an Alaskan group.

Article continues below...

Request a free trial of: Gas Daily
	Gas Daily offers the most detailed coverage of natural gas prices at interstate and intrastate pipeline and pooling points in major U.S. markets. Gas Daily keeps you informed about complex state and federal regulations that affect competition in the gas industry.

Concept selection would include a timetable for a project and an assessment of components for the project including pipeline routes and a location for the LNG plant, the companies said in a statement in March.

State of Alaska officials, who are working with the companies under a contract signed with TransCanada, said on background that this was the first definitive target date they had heard for a decision, even very preliminary, on the project.

Elizabeth Bluemink, spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources, said separately that the state believes concept selection would include a decision on siting the LNG plant at Valdez or in Cook Inlet.

Valdez is now the terminus for the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, but Cook Inlet offers more infrastructure to support a large project. ConocoPhillips now owns a smaller LNG plant at Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage.

The project is estimated to cost $45 billion to $65 billion. TransCanada and the producers previously focused on an all-land pipeline to Alberta to ship Alaska gas to the Lower 48, but the buildup of lower-cost shale gas has made that alternative uneconomic.

--Tim Bradner, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Carla Bass, carla_bass@platts.com

Tweet