Governor Sean Parnell announced Friday the state is taking a new approach to a large-scale natural gas line in Alaska.
“We have agreed to amicably terminate our involvement with TransCanada under AGIA, but sign up with TransCanada in a more traditional arrangement along with the producers and AGDC [Alaska Gasline Development Corporation],” he said at a presentation before the Alaska Support Industry Alliance in Anchorage.
Parnell did not release the terms of the agreement, but did announce “Transcanada agreed to a debt-equity structure that guarantees Alaska’s interests are protected.”
Parnell explained the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, which was negotiated under Governor Sarah Palin in 2007, was designed with the idea of one developer moving natural gas. Now the project is more complicated and involves gas treatment and liquification.
The new agreement with TransCanada, Exxon, BP, and ConocoPhillips, which Parnell said will be signed very soon, gives the state ownership. “Ownership ensures we either pay ourselves for project services or at the very least understand, negotiate, and ensure the lowest possible costs.”
Parnell said the state would also receive a share of the profits over the entirety of the project.
Anne Hillman is the healthy communities editor at Alaska Public Media and a host of Hometown, Alaska. Reach her atahillman@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Annehere.
