The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008
The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008
The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008
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Aerial shot that shows the scope and scale of<br />
Prudhoe Bay, which holds about 25 trillion cubic<br />
feet of gas, the main reserve that would underpin<br />
a gas line project. <strong>The</strong> facility in the foreground is<br />
Flow Station One, operated by BP.<br />
<br />
<strong>The</strong> United States imports the largest<br />
amount of natural gas in the world,<br />
according to a March <strong>2008</strong> paper from<br />
the Energy Information Administration,<br />
Office of Oil and Gas. In 2007, the U.S.<br />
received 99.8 percent of its pipeline-imported<br />
natural gas from Canada, with the<br />
remainder coming from Mexico.<br />
Natural gas cooled to minus 260 degrees<br />
Fahrenheit becomes liquid natural<br />
gas, or LNG. Liquefying natural gas<br />
reduces the volume it occupies by more<br />
than 600 times, making it a more practical<br />
size for storage and transportation.<br />
Gas produced from wells in Cook<br />
Inlet near Anchorage is liquefied and<br />
exported to Japan. Consumers in the<br />
Anchorage area and some parts of the<br />
Kenai Peninsula also enjoy the benefits<br />
of natural gas from Cook Inlet wells.<br />
But supplies are dwindling. A nitrogen<br />
fertilizer plant on the Kenai Peninsula<br />
was forced to close its doors last fall<br />
due to lack of natural gas, the highest<br />
cost component in the production of<br />
ammonia at the plant.<br />
Gas line for <strong>Alaska</strong><br />
Constructing a gas pipeline in <strong>Alaska</strong><br />
has been discussed since the first North<br />
Slope oil lease was sold more than 40<br />
years ago. But time and again, plans were<br />
shelved when financial experts evaluated<br />
costs versus benefits and didn’t like the<br />
bottom line.<br />
Oil prices topping $138 a barrel in<br />
June may have prompted a new interest<br />
in a gas pipeline, Persily said.<br />
Speaking as a private citizen, Persily<br />
said building a gas pipeline has previously<br />
never penciled out, but now appears<br />
feasible.<br />
“Will it happen before a meteor<br />
strikes the earth? I think eventually it<br />
will happen, but I don’t think it will hap-