Alaska wants a $50 billion pipeline and export complex built to develop natural gas that's stranded on its icy North Slope. The justification: Asia's swelling appetite for the fuel. Maybe we can't burn it for energy in the US, but they surely can in Asia.
Governor Sean Parnell gave Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and ConocoPhillips to the end of this month to provide plans to pipe the gas south and condense it into a liquid, known as LNG, for export. Their joint venture would compete with growing global supplies of LNG coming into markets within two decades from Australia, East Africa, the U.S. Gulf Coast and Canada.
The explosion of output from U.S. shale squelched Alaska's long-held hopes to build a pipeline to the Lower 48 U.S. states, Book said. "So the next most logical place to take it is to liquefy it and ship it at significant price premiums to Japan, China and throughout the Pacific Rim."
Turns out fracking is good for Asia, too. Anything to reduce the need for mid-east oil. Might even help balance our trade with China!
By 2025, the four largest consumers of LNG will be Japan, China, India and South Korea. Alaska's isolated location may help insulate it from discussions about whether the U.S. should be exporting gas pumped domestically.
"Sending Alaska gas overseas would not deprive petrochemical companies or utilities in Milwaukee or Shreveport of gas," said the federal coordinator for Alaska gas-transportation projects. "I think generally Alaska gas is absent from those political debates."