Senate finance committee hears AGDC update on Alaska LNG Phase 1 pipeline, costs and financing

The Alaska Senate Finance Committee heard a briefing from the Alaska Gas Line Development Corporation (AGDC) on a phased approach to the Alaska LNG project and a proposed Phase 1 in‑state pipeline during a committee meeting in February.

AGDC President Frank Richards told the committee AGDC currently owns 100% of the Alaska LNG project and is pursuing private partners to carry the project to final investment decision. “We are currently the 100% owner of the Alaska LNG project,” Richards said. He described a full project cost estimate the corporation has previously presented at about $44 billion (early‑2024 dollars) and said the Phase 1 pipeline — a 42‑inch line designed to move gas from the North Slope toward Southcentral Alaska — is currently estimated at about $10.8 billion (AGDC estimate, not adjusted here for later market changes).

The presentation framed Phase 1 as a way to supply in‑state demand first, with off‑takes available along the 807‑mile route and a downstream liquefaction facility in Nikiski as a later phase. AGDC said the full pipeline design capacity is about 3 billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd); projected in‑state needs modeled for Phase 1 range from roughly 180 million to 200 million scfd. AGDC presented a Wood Mackenzie independent analysis that modeled a range of delivered gas costs: Wood Mackenzie’s cases for imported LNG ranged about $10.21–$13.72 per MMBtu (real 2024 dollars), and its Phase 1 “base‑load” blended case produced a delivered cost near $11.20 per MMBtu with roughly 80 million scfd of average throughput in the study period.

Why the project matters: the Wood Mackenzie study included job and economic impact estimates that AGDC said would favor the pipeline over imported LNG for Alaskans. AGDC summarized Wood Mackenzie’s output as showing Phase 1 produces…