WASHINGTON — U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright gave a ringing endorsement for Alaska LNG Tuesday, a mega project that he acknowledged has a mega challenge.
Wright, testifying at a Senate hearing, said the project to build a pipeline and an export terminal for North Slope natural gas is his No. 1 infrastructure priority.
“Not a week goes by that I don’t have multiple meetings or dialogues about it,” he said, in response to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s questions.
But, he said, it’s “tricky” to finance construction of the 800-mile pipeline.
“And you have to build the pipeline first,” he said. “The LNG export terminal is not hard to finance, but we can’t finance that without financing the pipeline. So, we are just working every avenue we can.”
Officials from Alaska government and industry have tried for years to figure out how to bring North Slope gas to market. Natural gas is a byproduct of oil extraction and has been pumped back into the ground. In 2020, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. estimated the cost of the project to be $38.7. Other estimates run to nearly double that figure, raising doubts that it will ever make economic sense.
Wright, though, said Alaska LNG could solve a natural gas shortfall in Alaska cities and help U.S. allies in Asia who usually rely on tankers that have to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Murkowski raised a selling point for the Alaska project: “No choke point.”
Wright agreed.
“It’s a short run (from Alaska) to all the major LNG consumers in East Asia,” he said.
Wright supplied enthusiasm but did not detail any possible solutions to the financing hurdle.
