Legislature(2011 - 2012)BUTROVICH 205
03/26/2012 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation by Chrystia Chudczak, Assistant Commissioner, Canadian Federal Northern Pipeline Agency | |
| SB215 | |
| SB209 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | SB 215 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 209 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SB 215-GASLINE DEV. CORP: IN-STATE GAS PIPELINE
4:05:16 PM
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN announced consideration of SB 215 and a
continuation of the Monday, March 26, presentation.
SCOTT HEYWORTH, Chair, Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority
(ANGDA), Anchorage, AK, said he had two contractors with him to
give an overview of what ANGDA had done with the Beluga to
Fairbanks (B2F) project.
4:07:05 PM
He said about four years ago, Governor Palin called a press
conference and asked ANGDA and Enstar to run a "project," which
was a gasline from Cook Inlet to Fairbanks. ANGDA had one
meeting with Enstar who pulled away, but ANGDA continued and
started looking at the Ft. Richardson/Glenn/TAPS corridor route.
They felt that it had the most population with three military
bases, Golden Valley Electric and the Flint Hills Refinery. They
already had a state unconditional right-of-way lease from
Glennallen to Palmer and it would be very easy to work in the
existing TAPS corridor, recently valued at $12 million by
Legislative Budget and Audit (LB&A). ANGDA ran out of funding,
but completed 80 to 90 percent of the route.
4:08:47 PM
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN wanted to know if the following statement in a
December 2009 report was still true:
There are sufficient additional natural gas reserves
in the Cook Inlet region for development and delivery
to Fairbanks via the B2F Pipeline. Therefore, the
supply of gas to existing consumers of Cook Inlet
Natural Gas would not be adversely impacted.
MR. HEYWORTH responded that he didn't know how much faith he had
in that statement even four years ago, but today he believed
there was plenty of gas in Cook Inlet, 3.5 tcf or 10-15 years of
gas according to Furie. Cook Inlet is supposed to have three
jack-up rigs working in it this summer, and there is a good
chance a lot more gas will be found if they get lucky like Furie
did in striking a big find on the very first well.
4:10:46 PM
CO-CHAIR WAGONER related that Furie said on Wednesday that their
estimate was down to 750 bcf/d and they still hadn't flow tested
the well or done a lot of logs on it. And only two jack-up rigs
will be in Cook Inlet this summer, the Endeavor and Spartan 151;
there never was a third.
MR. HEYWORTH remarked that he was disappointed about going down
to 750 bcf.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked him to elaborate a little more on why the
B2F project was not completed.
MR. HEYWORTH replied that a couple of things coincided. As ANGDA
got started on Governor Palin's B2F project, a parallel instate
gasline committee was started in HB 269; its first chairman was
Harry Noah who passed it off to Bob Swenson, who passed it off
to Dan Fauske. The other group was strongly for the Parks
Highway; but ANGDA ran out of funds and support and started
receiving a lot of resistance from the Army Corps of Engineers
and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The state decided to
get behind Mr. Fauske and HB 9.
4:14:17 PM
SENATOR FRENCH asked how much longer the Glenn/Richardson route
is than the Parks Highway route.
MR. HEYWORTH answered that he wanted help in answering that from
Mr. Odsather.
4:14:55 PM
RICHARD "O.D." ODSATHER, Odsather International Marketing, ANGDA
contractor, Fairbanks, AK, answered that one line, Glennallen to
Delta to North Pole, is 30 miles shorter than the other. The
distance for the Glenn Highway/Tok/North Pole route was about
437 miles and the distance for the Milepost 39/Dunbar/Fort
Greely route was 467 miles; three military bases were involved.
SENATOR FRENCH said he wanted to compare a line from Big Lake to
Fairbanks versus a line from Fairbanks to the nearest pipeline
coming down the Richardson and the Glenn Highways.
MR. ODSATHER responded to subtract 25 miles from the 467 miles
for going up through Dunbar, because it's 25 miles from Big Lake
to Milepost 38 on the Enstar line.
SENATOR FRENCH asked him how many pipeline miles it was from Big
Lake to Fairbanks up the Parks Highway saying he came up with
271 miles. Mr. Odsather agreed.
SENATOR FRENCH asked how many miles it was from the nearest
pipeline touching the grid that connects Anchorage to Fairbanks
through the Glenn/Richardson route if its 271 miles from Big
Lake to Fairbanks.
MR. ODSATHER responded that they had to back up a bit, because
to make them equal, you have to go from Fairbanks up to Fort
Greely to pick up the three military bases.
SENATOR FRENCH asked why the three military bases have to be
included.
MR. ODSATHER explained that the B2F line includes Fort
Wainwright, Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Greely as anchor
tenants.
SENATOR FRENCH asked Mr. Odsather if he was saying that he had
added enough pipe to the 271 miles from Big Lake to Fairbanks to
touch the three bases (if they all agreed that is something that
has to be done).
MR. ODSATHER replied "Yes, sir...if you want to make them equal,
you have to do that."
4:20:25 PM
CO-CHAIR WAGONER said Mr. Odsather was saying you have to add
the distance from Fairbanks back down to the bases using the
Parks Highway route, but you don't have to add the bases. First,
they need to figure out what it takes to get to Fairbanks and
then if the bases want the gas they can build a supply line from
wherever the hub is established.
SENATOR FRENCH asked how big the pipe would be.
MR. ODSATHER replied 24 inches from Palmer to Delta and 10
inches from Delta to North Pole.
4:24:02 PM
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked if the 24 inch pipe from Delta into
Palmer was for the lateral from the anticipated 48 inch line
going to Canada.
MR. ODSATHER answered yes and he added that it's a totally
reversible pipeline.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked if building a gasline next to a railroad
(the Parks route) would save any money.
MR. ODSATHER answered if you can get the permits from the
highway or the railroad, fine, but it may be difficult going
through Denali State Park where the highway goes through an
"omnibus road" and its subsurface is owned by the federal
government. So, you might have to negotiate with the federal
government.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN asked if it was good or bad to have a railroad
close by.
4:25:40 PM
MR. ODSATHER replied that personally he would move it off to the
edge of the road, because that is the greatest thaw area and
therefore the least stable.
4:26:06 PM
SENATOR JOE THOMAS, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, AK, co-
sponsor of SB 215, observed that the B2F line was considered
important at one time and a reduced-size plastic pipe was going
to go from Delta into Fairbanks, because they were anticipating
that a line would come down through Fairbanks anyhow. So, you
put in the plastic line and when the big line was built you
could remove the plastic one.
The Parks Highway is 365 miles from Anchorage to Fairbanks and
you're roughly 30 some miles north of that. So if you run right
into Fairbanks, you subtract 30 miles off of that and come up
with a 335 mile pipeline.
SENATOR FRENCH said he was a big supporter of this project and
gas pipelines in general, but the North Slope gas project is so
big that it's hard to pinpoint when it will actually happen, and
that was why they were considering taking existing gas
production to where was needed in the Interior. He asked if they
were thinking about using plastic pipe as a short-term fix.
MR. HEYWORTH replied that ANGDA had researched PVC pipe and it
could be used if it was going down the Glenn/Richardson/TAPS
corridor where it's very close to either base. But to be fair,
an existing Enstar line goes to Big Lake and it has an 18 inch
tap at the end of it. You could come off of that and proceed
north on the Parks Highway and come into Dunbar and Nenana and
get into Fairbanks and North Pole. But what he really wanted to
convey to the committee was the idea that if the ASAP pipeline
comes off the North Slope from Livengood down through Minto to
Dunbar and then cuts over to the UAA campus with the 39-mile
lateral, then 20-mile increments gets you to Fairbanks, North
Pole and Eielson. The lateral could be a smaller 10 inch
pipeline coming all the way down to and through Delta Junction.
He asked why you would come down just to Dunbar if you start
with the lateral going all the up to North Pole and not just
continue down the Glenn/Richardson at that point and hit all the
military bases: Livengood to Dunbar, east to Golden Valley and
North Pole and then pick up the ANGDA route to Palmer. It's a
much cheaper pipeline that catches everybody.
SENATOR FRENCH said he appreciated his answer and that he was
just trying to get up to speed by thinking of the quickest,
cheapest solution.
SENATOR THOMAS said realistically the only base you would leave
out if you came from mile 39 and went up the Parks Highway by
building a 340 mile pipeline would be Fort Greely. A plastic
pipe would probably last long enough if an instate line of some
type would be installed at a later date.
SENATOR FRENCH said it would be interesting to know how much gas
can move through 12 inch plastic pipe, because he didn't how
long Fairbanks was going to wait to get a steel pipeline from
the North Slope - and he didn't think they could wait that long.
SENATOR THOMAS replied that someone probably has the calculation
for a temporary fix to Fairbanks, but he thought a 10 or 12 inch
pipe would be more than enough.
4:33:57 PM
SENATOR FRENCH said every single house in Fairbanks would have
to convert and distribution lines would have to be laid and
wondered how long that would take no matter how the gas gets
there.
SENATOR THOMAS agreed.
CO-CHAIR WAGONER said they should establish a location for a
hub. Pipelines don't put all the supply lines out there; they
let whoever has the certificate of public convenience do it. The
main thing is to get the gas to that area and let everyone else
worry about the distribution.
CO-CHAIR PASKVAN agreed and said the line between Fairbanks and
Big Lake does not need to be 24 inches. That's only if you want
to pre construct the lateral to hook up with a future large
diameter line going to Valdez or through Canada.
CO-CHAIR WAGONER said there should be just one line to take care
of all the needs.
[SB 215 was held in committee.]
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Pipeline Agency Canada_SEN RES_03-26-2012.pdf |
SRES 3/26/2012 3:30:00 PM |