Gov. Mike Dunleavy closes five-day CERAWeek conference by confirming the president’s ‘unleashing American energy’ policies are doing exact that.
HOUSTON–Alaskan liquefied natural gas (LNG) could be fueling East Asian power plants in three years with the accelerated completion of an 807-mile pipeline project and resurrection of a defunct export terminal, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy told global energy leaders at CERAWeek by S&P Global on Friday.
“We have all permits. We have won all the court cases. We have Asian allies that want the gas,” he said. “And, we have a supportive President of the United States.”
Alaska Gasline Development Corporation’s (AGDC) plan to funnel about 3.3 billion cubic feet of gas a day (Bcf/d) from Prudhoe Bay above the North Slope to Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula, about 80 miles south of Anchorage, would be the United States’ ninth LNG export terminal and the only one on the West Coast.
AGDC, an independent, state-owned corporation, was established in 2013 by state lawmakers who commissioned it the following year to “develop an Alaska liquefied natural gas project on the state’s behalf.”
The proposed pipeline/terminal project was initially submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2017 and received authorization to proceed in May 2020 under the Trump administration.
The Biden administration reauthorized it in 2022. However, nearly 80 Biden executive orders related to Alaska energy development locked the LNG project in regulatory limbo.
That changed following Trump’s return to the White House. On his first day in office, Jan. 20, Trump issued a blizzard of executive actions aimed at “unleashing American energy.”
Among them was his “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential” order, which calls on federal agencies to “expedite the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects,” prioritize “development of Alaska’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) potential,” and expand oil and gas drilling in the 19.6-million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and, potentially, also in the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve.
The sweeping action rescinds “all regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions … promulgated, issued, or adopted between Jan. 20, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2025,” essentially erasing 70 Biden-era regulatory actions related to Alaska.
“It’s a very different world, right?” Dunleavy said, noting that Trump’s Alaska executive action doesn’t just untangle the LNG project from a regulatory straitjacket but clears away federal rules restricting access to critical minerals, timber, and other resources in the massive state.
“It was comprehensive,” he said. “Read the executive order. It’s an amazing executive order. I mean, we’ll have that framed on our walls for decades” in the Alaska Governor’s office.
Dunleavy said Alaskans “pioneered” the development of LNG and were the first to export LNG overseas in 1969 to Japan. To ship LNG at a profitable volume, a pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to a port-side liquefaction plant was needed.
The existing Nikiski terminal with a 0.2 Bcf/d capacity was mothballed in 2017. ConocoPhillips exported a relatively small amount of Cook Inlet gas to Asian markets until 2015, but without pipeline access to North Slope fields, the operation was not profitable.
AGDC’s plans outline a 200-acre gas treatment plant in Prudhoe Bay that will include a carbon capture component to remove carbon dioxide from gas, capture it, and compress it “for reinjection into the Prudhoe Bay reservoirs.”
The Nikiski LNG plant will have the capacity to process, store, and ship up to 20 million tons of LNG a year from a two-berth marine terminal that can accommodate Q-Flex LNG carriers, among the world’s largest ship classes with a cargo-carrying capacity of 210,000 cubic meters, or 74,160 tons.
AGDC maintains that Alaska’s LNG exports would boost U.S. exports by $10 billion a year, chipping away at the nation’s trade deficit. The project would also employ up to 10,000 during construction and create approximately 1,000 permanent operational jobs.
“It’s hard to believe but we’ve got all the permits that the right way is lined up. We are ready to go,” Dunleavy said. “We’re looking at two-and-a-half years [to get the] gas flowing.”
He said AGDC projects the pipeline will move 80,000 barrels of oil within three years and about 495,000 barrels from Prudhoe Bay by 2030-31. The Willow oil field development project approved in 2023 will add another 250,000 barrels to that line so the total would amount to more than 700,000 barrels by 2030-31, he said.
AGDC’s project description states that the 42-inch pipeline, which would be underground except for crossing bodies of water such as Cook Inlet and active fault lines, will have the capacity for “multiple interconnection points for in-state gas distribution,” a key lifeline to remote areas for fuel refining, mining, and industrial development.
“It’s a large pipeline, but by splitting it out into three components, you reduce that cost, and that allows you to get gas flowing for in-state use the first year, as well as for our bases,” Dunleavy said.
He said the in-state component, which will be the first phase of the project, is also important for national defense.
“We’re getting that gas to our bases first,” he said, noting that there are many major military installations across the state.
“We are literally two-and-a-half miles from Russian territory. We are within the Korean missile umbrella in Alaska, and we have Chinese warships in the Arctic as we speak,” he said.
“We’re chasing Russian jets [out of U.S. airspace] at least a couple times a month. As a result of that, we have to have those bases 100 percent fully operational and not worried about” fuel and electricity.
Dunleavy is set to leave on March 17 for trade talks with potential buyers in Japan and Korea.
“Conversations will be had in Thailand, as well,” he said. “They’re very interested because it diversifies [energy supplies], by obviously large volumes, for 50 to 60 years of gas.”
The governor was among the final speakers at the five-day CERAWeek conference, the largest energy-related annual gathering in the United States. The conference drew 10,000 attendees, including 450 CEOs and officials from 89 countries.