Glenfarne selects Worley for additional Alaska LNG pipeline work

Glenfarne Alaska LNG announced on May 27 that it had selected Worley to carry out additional engineering work and prepare a final cost estimate for the planned Alaska LNG pipeline.

This comes after the company – an affiliate of Glenfarne group – agreed in March to buy a 75% stake in Alaska LNG from state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC), also taking over as lead developer of the project. The acquisition came as a major boost for the long-delayed Alaska LNG project, whose chances of being built now look considerably improved.

The 807-mile (1,299-km) Alaska LNG pipeline would be built in two phases, with the first aimed at supplying Alaska’s domestic natural gas market. The first phase would carry gas roughly 765 miles (1,231 km) from the North Slope to the Anchorage region. Under the second phase, compression equipment would be added, along with around 42 miles (68 km) of pipeline under Cook Inlet to the planned Alaska LNG export facility in Nikiski to supply the 20mn tonne per year (tpy) plant with feed gas.

Glenfarne said that the final cost estimate by Worley would be prepared in sufficient detail for a final investment decision (FID) to be taken on the pipeline, which it is targeting for later this year. Worley had already begun the additional work, Glenfarne added, and this would use and supplement the “extensive package of previously completed engineering work and update the cost of the pipeline”. Worley had also been selected as the preferred engineering firm for the Cook Inlet Gateway LNG import terminal and project delivery adviser across the Alaska LNG projects, Glenfarne said.

“The declining gas production from Cook Inlet risks Alaska’s energy security, as well as US national security and military readiness,” stated Glenfarne Group’s founder and CEO, Brendan Duval. “Prioritising the development and final investment decision of the pipeline is essential to solving the natural gas shortages which are already impacting [on] the state.”

Worley is also partnering with Glenfarne on the Texas LNG project on the US Gulf Coast.

As the final engineering work on the Alaska LNG pipeline is being carried out, Glenfarne has also launched a process to find partners to help build the project.