In this regard, Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), the State of Alaska, China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), CIC Capital Corporation (CIC Capital), and Bank of China (BOC), have all signed an agreement on the sidelines of the US President Donald Trump’s visit to China.

As per the terms of the agreement, the parties will cooperate on LNG marketing, financing, investment model as well as China content in the Alaska LNG project. A periodic result for the project is anticipated to come by 2018.

The Alaska LNG project is expected to create up to 10,000 jobs during its construction stage followed up by around 1,000 jobs for handling the operations.

Alaska State Governor Bill Walker said: “This is an agreement that will provide Alaska with an economic boom comparable to the development of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in the 1970s.”

Sinopec, China’s state-owned, energy and chemical company, stated that it is interested in the potential of purchasing LNG on a steady basis from the Alaska LNG production.

AGDC president Keith Meyer said: “Today’s agreement brings the potential customer, lender, equity investor, and developer together with a common objective of crafting mutually beneficial agreements leading to increased LNG trade between Alaska and China.”

The Alaska LNG project is designed to be an integrated LNG system with a capacity of 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). It will feature a three train liquefaction plant at Nikiski in South central Alaska and a 1.1m diameter gas pipeline spanning nearly 1,287km.

The LNG system will also have a gas treatment plant to come up on the North Slope of Alaska. Apart from that, several interconnecting facilities will be built to link the Prudhoe Bay gas complex and the gas treatment plant.

In late June, AGDC made a deal with Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) to cooperate on developing the Alaska LNG project. The cooperation includes project investment, development, operations and other arrangements associated with the project.


Image: Alaska LNG project is designed to have a capacity of 20MTPA. Photo: puttsk/Freedigitalphotos.net.