Alaska News

Fairbanks utility applies to build North Slope natural gas pipeline

Fairbanks's Golden Valley Electric Association has applied for a lease with the Department of Natural Resources to build a short natural gas pipeline on Alaska's North Slope, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

The half-mile-long, 10-inch, above-ground natural gas pipeline is part of GVEA's plan to build a network to move liquefied natural gas from the North Slope to Fairbanks for use in generating electricity. The pipeline would begin near Prudhoe Bay at Flow Station No. 3 and run 2,650 feet to a site north of Spine Road, where GVEA plans to erect a gas liquefaction facility in the future.

The pipeline is a preliminary step in the gas trucking plan, says the utility. "This is just a piece of the puzzle," GVEA power supply engineer Paul Park told the News-Miner.

The permit from DNR would allow GVEA to move up to 29.5 million cubic feet of LNG per day, build a pad as big as 12 acres and allow the company to construct a 200-foot-wide pipeline right-of-way over state-owned lands.

Construction could begin in fall 2012, but completion would not be until 2015.

In November, Flint Hills, the company that operates the refinery in North Pole, decided against partnering with GVEA in its gas trucking project, and this application is generally the same as one submitted by Flint Hills.

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Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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