Trump administration convinced Alaska LNG will find investors despite cost

The Trump administration is convinced that a massive liquefied natural gas project in Alaska will find investors despite its enormous costs.

President Donald Trump has pushed Alaska Lng as a national priority since its entry into office. Alaska has already spent years trying to build an 800 mile pipeline from the northern slope above the Arctic circle to the south to the entrance to the cook, where the gas would be cooled and shipped to the American allies in Asia.

But Alaska LNG has never taken off due to a stratospheric price of more than $ 40 billion. Trump pushed Japan and South Korea in particular to invest in the project, threatening them with higher prices if they do not offer commercial transactions that suit him.

“If you get the gas offetakers for gas, funding is quite simple,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright to Brian Sullivan from CNBC to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. “There [are] Countries around the world seek to reduce its trade deficit with the United States, and of course, a very easy way to do so is to buy more American energy, “said Wright.

Energy analysts, however, are skeptical about the project. Alaska LNG “has no clear commercial logic,” Alex Munton, director of Global Gas and Gnl Research At Rapidan Energy told CNBC.

“If that was the case, he would have had much more support than so far, and this project has been part of the town planning council for decades,” said Munton.

Defense Department Support

Wright said that the project would be built in stages and would initially serve the domestic demand in Alaska, which faces a drop in natural gas supplies in the entrance to the cook. Interior secretary, Doug Burgum, said the Ministry of Defense was ready to support the project with his resources.

“They are ready to connect to conclude a leave agreement of this pipeline to bring gas to our super strategic and important bases through Alaska,” Burgum told Pentagon in a CNBC interview with Prudhoe Bay.

The Alaska LNG, if it was finished, would deliver American natural gas in Japan in about eight days, against around 24 days for American exports of the Gulf Coast which cross the Panama Congestionné canal, said Burgum. This would also avoid the disputed waters of the Southern China Sea that LNG exports from the Middle East pass, said the interior secretary.

Wright said potential Asian investors have questions about the Alaska LNG calendar and logistics. The pipeline could start delivering LNG in southern Alaska in 2028 or 2029, with exports in Asia starting in the early 2030s, Wright said.

Glenfarne Group, the main project developer, said to CNBC in April That a final investment decision is expected within the next six to 12 months on the leg of a proposed pipeline which extends from the northern slope to Anchorage. Glenfarne is a developer, owner and operator deprived of energy -based energy infrastructure and Houston.