Port Authority Announces New Buyer for Natural Gas

Valdez Star Continued: "Port Authority Announces New Buyer for Natural Gas
By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star
VALDEZ- The Alaska Gasline Port Authority announced last week they had found a new buyer who has agreed to buy natural gas via a pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez, but the group has declined to name the new source. Citing a fear of negative political pressure, members of the organization are remaining tight lipped about the new partner. Valdez Mayor Bert Cottle said �We signed confidentiality agreements.�
The struggling entity, comprised of representatives from Valdez, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the North Slope Borough. The group is fighting to regain ground lost in May when the original buyer the group had contracted with, Sempra Energy, withdrew from the project citing a lack of support from Alaska state government, namely Governor Frank Murkowski, who has long touted a competing development plan that would build a pipeline from the oil fields of the North Slope through Canada, which, would ultimately end in the mid-west of the lower 48. The withdrawal letter from Sempra also cited the lack of interest from the major oil producers in the state, who are holding the leases on the oil wells where the natural gas is being pumped back into the ground for lack of development.
Despite the major setbacks the AGPA has regrouped and are still touting the viability of the project. �We are still a player,� said Cottle, �We just keep chugging along. People said we�d never get this far.�
While coyly evading questions about when the buyer would be announced, Cottle did relate that the AGPA has had meetings with Governor Murkowski regarding the all-Alaska Pipeline. The governor has long reported that he wanted to bring a deal before the legislature regarding the sale and development of the states abundant but stranded natural gas."