NATURAL GAS: Glennallen-Palmer spur is moving forward.
Hustle on pipeline, Heinze says
adn.com
By ZAZ HOLLANDER
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: December 23, 2004)
PALMER -- A spur to carry natural gas to Southcentral Alaska isn't a new aspect of the long-awaited pipeline to supply the Lower 48 with North Slope gas. But for the first time, the head of the state's natural gas authority says work is starting on the spur, whether or not the main gas pipeline happens.
Completion of the gas line is said to be at least 10 years off.
The three oil companies that own North Slope gas -- Conoco Phillips, BP, and Exxon Mobil Corp. -- favor a $20-plus billion pipeline to ferry gas from Prudhoe Bay to the Midwest.
A more "Alaska-sized" spur pipeline from Palmer to Glennallen would cost a fraction of that, train 500 workers in pipeline construction, remedy dwindling gas supplies in Cook Inlet and begin by 2006.
That's the message Harold Heinze, chief executive officer of the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, delivered Wednesday to the Palmer Chamber of Commerce.
The best scenario for the spur still involves the construction of a gas line from the North Slope, Heinze told about 50 people at the Palmer Moose Lodge.
But "hurry up!" he said. "If they don't hurry up, we'll figure out a way to get all the way up north."
Heinze said the spur line would cost $300 million to build. It could slash gas bills in the Cook Inlet area, he said.
Some studies indicate that power plants and consumers will exhaust Cook Inlet gas reserves within 10 years. Heinze said the new spur could supply twice the current demand.
Voters created the gas development authority two years ago with an eye toward building a liquefied natural gas line from the North Slope to Valdez. The ballot measure also provided for construction of the spur pipeline to bring gas to Southcentral.
According to Heinze's comments Wednesday, the state gas authority wants to build at least a 140-mile pipeline from Palmer to Glennallen.
From there, the length of the spur would depend on the fate of the gas line.
If the route to Valdez won out, then the spur would link to the pipeline at Glennallen.
If the line to the Midwest got built from the North Slope to Delta Junction, then another 140-mile section would have to be built from Glennallen to Delta.
But even if no gas line were built, Heinze said, he is confident the authority or someone else could find a way to get gas from the North Slope to Glennallen and the Cook Inlet area.
Jeff Johnson isn't so sure. Johnson, a chamber member who keeps tabs on petroleum issues, told Heinze the state needs to wait for the producers to commit before starting work on the spur.
"It seems like we have the horse and the cart out of place," he said. "We don't have producers that want to supply the gas."
Heinze told Johnson that while the gas pipeline needs 50 trillion cubic feet of gas to be viable, the spur would need less than 8 trillion cubic feet.
And work on the spur is already under way.
The authority is spending $250,000 for consultants to help apply for right-of-way access across state land. They expect to do that by April 1, with a decision by September.
For the next nine months, at an expected cost of $10 million, the authority would work on engineering plans, environmental permits and other prep work.
Under the authority's current plans, a 24-inch thick-walled pipeline buried at least six feet deep would start around Glennallen and run north of the Glenn Highway, across a combination of road right-of-way, utility corridors, and state and private lands, Heinze said. The pipeline would carry a combination of high-pressure gas and propane, as much as 25,000 barrels a day.
At Bonnie Lake outside of Chickaloon, the pipeline would veer into the Talkeetna Mountains, along a recreational trail that follows Caribou Creek. Then it would zigzag down to the Glenn.
The route would end in Palmer, within a mile of the Glenn-Parks interchange. That's where two Enstar gas lines intersect; they could carry gas from the spur to Anchorage.
Once the pipeline hit the end point outside Palmer, an industrial facility would depressurize the contents and remove the propane for shipment.
Heinze told the group the authority wants their feedback, and he introduced consultant Ruth Adams, who will be meeting with local residents.
"I want you to think about it like this is gonna really happen and approach it that way," he urged chamber members. "Treat it as a serious reality."
Reporter Zaz Hollander can be reached at the Daily News Wasilla office at 907-352-6711 or zhollander@adn.com. |
