Natural gas pipeline plans revealed by the state of Alaska

A massive in-state pipeline is in the works in Alaska. The line would transport natural gas from the state’s North Slope to its more inhabited southern regions. The total estimated costs for the project have been put somewhere between $6 billion and $12 billion. Partial ownership by the state is almost guaranteed in a project of this size.

The project appropriately titled the Alaskan Stand Alone Pipeline will stretch over a lengthy 737 miles and 24 inches. The line will transport over 500 million cubic feet of natural gas between the local regions of Prudhoe Bay and Anchorage.

The project is yet to be fully green lit, as local officials try to gauge the actual feasibility of a plan that encompasses such mass amounts of financial and territorial commitments.

The pipeline project has been in the works for more than three decades now, and with two outside companies now pitching proposals of export pipelines to the state, it is time for Alaska to make the decision of whether their oil transports will be kept strictly domestic, of if they will branch out into exporting pipelines.

The rival companies are Exxon and TransCanada, and their proposal consists of building a 1, 7000 mile line that would connect the state with the province of Alberta. BP has also wielded a pitch to the state that would see the company construct an almost identical pipeline for $6 billion less.

Yet despite lucrative opportunities for an export line being established in the state, Alaska does need an in-state line.

Since the project will constitute such drastically large financial inputs, the state has been dragging their feet on the decision, as a considerable part of that cost would have to be fielded by them.

Industrial investors may just be the saving grace for the state, who have kept the project open for all interested parties.