Energy · Infrastructure

Alaska LNG Project Advances with New Buyer Discussions

The ambitious $55 billion Alaska LNG project is moving closer to a final investment decision as its lead developer engages in talks with additional potential buyers for its liquefied natural gas.

News AutomationCompiled 08:06 UTC · 1 min read

An artist's rendering of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal.

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Alaska’s $55B LNG Mega-Project In Talks With More Buyers Ahead Of FID

By Alex Kimani

Alaska LNG is gaining momentum, with strong Trump administration backing and growing interest from Japan and South Korea helping the $55 billion project overcome previous financing hurdles.
Glenfarne needs 3 million more tonnes of offtake agreements to reach its 80% target for a final investment decision.
The project could strengthen U.S. LNG exports to Asia, offering shorter Pacific shipping routes to Japan and South Korea while diversifying U.S. export capacity beyond the Gulf Coast.

Alaska

Two years ago, Alaska LNG was struggling to secure the private financing needed to move forward, with high Arctic construction costs, logistical complexities and massive upfront property tax burdens making lenders and potential Asian buyers hesitant to commit. But since then, the outlook for the $55-billion megaproject has improved considerably. The proposed 800-mile pipeline and LNG export project has gained strong backing from the Trump administration, with President Trump pushing Japan and South Korea in particular to invest in the project and purchase its gas as part of broader efforts to reduce their trade surpluses with the United States." If you get the commercial offtakers for the gas, financing is pretty straightforward," Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC last year. " There [are] countries around the world looking to shrink their trade deficit with the United States, and of course, a very easy way to do that is to buy more American energy," Wright said.

And now, the giant project has come a step closer to finally becoming reality: Lead developer Glenfarne Group has revealed that it’s talking to two more potential buyers in a bid to secure offtake agreements for another 3 million metric tons of LNG before the company makes a final investment decision (FID). Glenfarne Group says it requires 80% of its 20-million-ton target capacity covered before making its FID, having secured offtake agreements for more than 13 million tons so far.

Japan’s LNG giants Tokyo Gas and JERA are among the companies that have already signed preliminary offtake agreements with the company. Glenfarne owns a 75% stake in the venture with state-backed Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) owning the rest.

“ (The) last 3 million tons will move very quickly,” Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval said at a business forum in Tokyo.

Alaska LNG is a dual-phase project designed for fast-track development. Phase One will focus entirely on unlocking North Slope natural gas resources to supply affordable, reliable energy to homes, businesses and industries within Alaska. This will involve the construction of a 765-mile, 42-inch main pipeline split into four sections that will be constructed simultaneously. It will route gas from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope down to the Anchorage/Southcentral region. There will also be an optional 63-mile, 32-inch Point Thomson Lateral Pipeline designed to pull gas from secondary North Slope fields.

Phase Two will transition the project into a global energy export hub once local demand and pipeline infrastructure are established. This will extend the pipeline to its full 807-mile length, terminating in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula on the northwest shore of Alaska. This phase will also involve the construction of a three-train LNG liquefaction and storage terminal capable of producing 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG. Greece’s Danaos Corporation announced in January that it will invest $50 million in Glenfarne Alaska Partners LLC to become the preferred tonnage provider for the project. Danaos Corporation will build and operate 6-10 LNG carriers that will transport the LNG to buyers across Asia, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The shipping routes from south-central Alaska across the North Pacific offer a significant geographic advantage. The North Pacific Great Circle line connects Alaska and western North America to major Asian ports via some of the shortest possible maritime distances. This path also provides a canal-free journey to East Asia that completely avoids congested bottlenecks such as the Panama and Suez canals, reducing transit delays and geopolitical risks.

“ Alaska, from a trade standpoint, is about one-third the distance to Japan or Korea than it is to the Middle East,” U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said during the Tokyo conference. “ This dramatically shortens transit times, but also dramatically increases energy security.”

That said, South-central Alaska ports require specialized cold-weather handling and robust local logistics to support steady, high-volume container fleets.

Alaska LNG would also enter the market during a massive expansion of U.S. LNG export capacity. Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG, QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil’s (NYSE:XOM) Golden Pass LNG, Cheniere Energy’s (NYSE:LNG) Corpus Christi Stage 3, NextDecade’s (NASDAQ:NEXT) Rio Grande LNG, Sempra Energy’s (NYSE:SRE) Port Arthur, Venture Global’s CP2 and Woodside Energy’s (NYSE:WDS) Louisiana LNG are currently under development. Together, these projects could add as much as 14 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of capacity between 2025 and 2029, effectively doubling current U.S. LNG export capacity. Most of that new capacity is concentrated on the Gulf Coast. Alaska LNG would give the U.S. something different: a major LNG export hub on the Pacific, much closer to key buyers in Japan and South Korea.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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