Companies seek LNG export license extension ___________________________________________
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By RICHARD RICHTMYER, Anchorage Daily News
Published: January 19, 2007
Last Modified: January 19, 2007 at 03:22 PM
Conoco Phillips and Marathon Oil said Friday that they're seeking a two-year extension of their federal permit to ship liquefied natural gas from Cook Inlet overseas.
The two companies jointly own and operate an LNG plant in Nikiski, where natural gas from Cook Inlet is liquefied, loaded onto tankers and shipped to Japan. Tokyo Electric Power Co. uses it to run its power plants.
Their current export license from the U.S. Department of Energy expires in March 2009. On Friday, the companies said they had asked the agency to extend the license through March 2011.
Executives of Conoco and Marathon announced their plans today at an oil industry conference in Anchorage, saying that the extension will help keep development dollars flowing into Cook Inlet's gas fields and ensure a steady supply of gas for consumers in Southcentral Alaska.
Critics said they're worried that continuing to export Cook Inlet gas might crimp local supplies.
Curtis Thayer, a spokesman for Enstar Natural Gas Co., the region's dominant natural gas distributor, said his company's projected supplies show a shortfall starting at the same time Conoco and Marathon's export extension would begin.
"We're going to need to sit down and talk with them about this," Thayer said.
Darren Jones, Conoco's vice president of Alaska assets, said there is no shortage of gas reserves in Cook Inlet and that the partners in the LNG plant are proposing reducing the amount they export during the two-year extension to take into account the need for gas in Southcentral.
Currently, they export roughly 220 million cubic feet a day. If the license were extended, they'd pull back to about 180 million cubic feet a day, Jones said. |
