Alaskans ponder Bush's plans for pipeline, NPRA
Date: 21-May-01
Country: USA
Author: Yereth Rosen
Bush's much-anticipated energy strategy, released Thursday, calls for commercializing the North Slope's vast reserves of stranded natural gas, a goal long sought by Alaska officials, and for further oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a sometimes-overlooked federal unit on the western North Slope.
Just a mention of gas commercialization in the national energy strategy is a "positive sign," said Bob King, spokesman for Gov. Tony Knowles.
In contrast to the call for oil drilling in northeast Alaska's Arctic Refuge, a proposal vehemently opposed by environmentalists and some Alaska Natives, the Bush plan's call for shipping North Slope gas to the Lower 48 markets is likely to be more popular, King said.
"I think this is one part of it that many people can believe in," he said.
Knowles, a Democrat, has pushed for a gas pipeline that would run from Prudhoe Bay through western Canada, in a route paralleling the Alaska Highway, to deliver to the Lower 48.
Curtis Thayer, spokesman for a work group established by the major North Slope producers to study how to build an overland gas pipeline, said the Bush references to Alaska gas are "very broad" and lacking detail.
Still, the strategy holds the promise of smoother and speedier permitting, something that would help make North Slop e gas commercial, he said.
"Anything that can give us regulatory and permitting speed is going to help this project," he said.
Areas of the North Slope already open for oil development hold proven gas reserves of about 35 trillion cubic feet. Most of that is at Prudhoe Bay, which has been producing oil since 1977.
Because of distance from markets and economic hurdles, that gas has been stranded on the North Slope. The major North Slope oil producers - BP, Phillips Petroleum and Exxon Mobil - estimate it would cost about $10 billion to build a gas pipeline connecting the North Slope with the Lower 48.
Producers now pump up about 8 million cubic feet of gas daily, as a byproduct of oil, and re-inject it into the earth. The state of Alaska, as owner of the mineral rights, stands to benefit greatly if the gas is marketed.
Although support for commercializing North Slope gas is nearly unanimous in Alaska, one environmentalist questioned the call for quicker regulatory approval.
Local and state interests might lose out under the streamlining process promoted by the Bush plan, said Deb Moore, Arctic coordinator for the Fairbanks-based Northern Alaska Environmental Center.
"The idea of streamlining things so that things can be easier for the oil and gas industry is just scary," she said.
As for further oil development in the 23 million acre (9.3 million hectare) National Petroleum Reserve, Bush's plan is "ambiguous," said Deborah Williams, executive director of the Alaska Conservation Foundation and a former top Alaska official in the Interior Department.
The Clinton administration opened up about 4 million acres (1.62 million hectares) of the reserve to oil development, and sold leases there in 1999. As Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's Alaska aide, Williams helped oversee that process.
The area opened to leasing was in the reserve's northeastern corner, the closest to existing development. The Clinton administration policy excluded some areas considered ecologically sensitive.
Williams said she is unsure whether Bush intends to open up those parts of the study area that were put off-limits to development - generally around wildlife-rich Teshukpuk Lake - or to consider new areas of the reserve for leasing.
"I think they know what they mean. It just wasn't communicated in the language that I saw," she said.
