On Tuesday, the significance of President Trump’s first major speech to a joint session of Congress was widespread. One particular announcement, however, grabbed attention all over the country – the president’s plan for a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Nikiski in the Kenai Peninsula.
And it will be a huge, beautiful pipeline:
During Tuesday night’s address, the president stated, “My administration is working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska, among the largest in the world, where Japan, South Korea and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each. There’s never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular. It’s all set to go. The permitting is gotten.”
This pipeline project is referred to as Alaska LNG and is a massive proposed endeavor that aims to transport natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope covering a distance of 800 miles to Nikiski. In Nikiski, the gas would be cooled to a liquid form and then exported abroad, most likely to the Pacific allies of America like Japan.
So, how big, and how beautiful will it be? Well, not the world’s biggest, but it’s big. Beauty, we concede, is in the eye of the beholder; but Alaskans with jobs – now, that’s beautiful:
The Alaska LNG Project pipeline would be far from the longest in the world. That title goes to Russia’s Druzhba Pipeline, which covers more than 3,100 miles in Europe. In North America, the Keystone Oil Pipeline runs more than 2,100 miles between Canada and the United states.
But at 42 inches, it would be large in diameter. A 2021 report from Global Energy Monitor puts the average pipeline diameter at 30 inches. The Keystone pipeline is 36 inches in diameter.
What some may be curious about is this: The current Alaska oil pipeline runs to the port at Valdez, overland the whole way – it passes through mountainous terrain, including the Brooks and Alaska ranges, but over land. This new LNG pipeline, to go to Nikiski, would have to either run way east and then back west over more mountains to get around the Turnagain Arm or across the mouth of the Turnagain to get to the Kenai Peninsula.
Why Nikiski? There’s already an LNG facility there. It’s inactive, but it’s there, and it would seem to be easier to restart an existing facility than to build a new one.
There are already prospective buyers for the gas:
In 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported ambivalence about the project from prospective buyers in Japan and South Korea, who had concerns about the project’s costs, timeline and impact on climate change.
But last week, the New York Times described new interest from prospective partners in Asia as a way to placate Trump amid tariff threats.
And there are local parties, as well:
Still, as of Wednesday, there aren’t any binding agreements with anyone to buy gas from the project, if it’s built. But the project does have what’s called a gas sales precedent agreement with Great Bear Pantheon, an Alaska-based oil exploration company, to buy up to 500 million cubic feet of gas per day. The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation says that’s “more than enough” to meet in-state gas needs.
So, the whole thing is hardly a done deal yet. But it’s looking a lot more likely than it was before, oh, say, November 5th, 2024.
