The federal pipeline coordinator's office will shut down Saturday but may be resurrected if Congress accepts funding provided in the president's budget.
The office was created in 2004 to coordinate permitting efforts for an Alaska gas line project from the North Slope to the Lower 48. But three years ago the state changed its gas line plans, saying the market had shifted and liquefied North Slope gas should be sent in oceangoing tankers to Asia.
That left an office without the statutory authority to coordinate the 20-plus federal agencies that will have jurisdiction over the Alaska LNG project. But the office survived a few more years, creating something of a news agency that provided information about the new project, global gas markets and the state's history of failed gas line attempts.
In December, Congress did not include funding for the office in its spending bill and the money ran out, said Larry Persily, the outgoing federal pipeline coordinator.
Persily had thinned the staff over the years. He said the closure includes the loss of four jobs and vacated office space in Midtown Anchorage and in Washington, D.C.
The office's work will live on at its website, arcticgas.gov. That will be maintained but not updated by the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, with help from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Work can also be found at The Pipe Files, a digital library of Alaska pipeline projects dating back to the 1970s.
Persily, 63, will start a job late next week working for Mike Navarre, mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. He'll serve as special assistant on oil and gas issues. Among his duties will be working on the Alaska LNG project involving the state, three major oil companies and the TransCanada pipeline company.
President Barack Obama has inserted funding for the office in his budget and has proposed changing its statutory authority so it can coordinate efforts for an in-state pipeline targeting Asian markets, Persily said.
If Congress agrees to fund and expand the office's authority, the president will have to name a new federal coordinator.
Persily, who ran the office for five years, said he doesn't think he'll apply.
"They have my phone number if they want to call me," he said.