Gas Is Transferring to Cook Inlet Storage

Anchorage and South Central residents today were assured they will have enough natural gas on hand to make it through the winter.

A dispute had developed between Marathon Oil and the underground Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage facility – which had been elevated to a complaint before the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.  The Storage facility’s management  had said that Marathon was directing its gas production to overseas markets instead of meeting its commitment to fill local needs.

In a statement released today,  Marathon says it is not violating its agreement and has already begun transferring  gas to the facility.

Anchorage Democrat Pete Peterson was among several legislators who had asked Governor Parnell to get involved in talks between the two companies.

The Storage facility is going to be able to hold somewhere around eleven Billion cubic feet  of natural gas, but they knew they were not going to be able to reach that number this year.  But they were going to be able to get seven Billion in there this year.   But with the shipments diverted to Japan,  we were worried whether we were going to be able to reach enough gas where there would be enough pressure where we would be able to draw it out as fast as we needed it on extreme cold days.

Peterson said he’s anticipating positive reports at the end of the season that will indicate the amount of gas that might become available in future years from other Cook Inlet explorers.

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