Congress Clears the Way for Construction of Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, NGI Reports.

STERLING, Va. -- A major step by the U.S. Congress toward ensuring long term natural gas supplies went virtually unnoticed this week as the departing lawmakers slipped an $18 billion loan guarantee and authorizations for a mega-natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to the lower 48 states into last-minute appropriations and tax measures, Natural Gas Intelligence reported.

The project to add 1,800 miles of pipeline to the already existing infrastructure to deliver 4.5 billion cubic feet a day (Bcf/d) to U.S. markets in the West and Midwest still has a long way to go, but the enabling measures approved Monday "provide us with what we need from the U.S. Congress for this project," Dave MacDowell, a spokesman for the Alaska operations of BP, one of the three major Alaska gas producers, told NGI.

The legislation provides the impetus for the project to gain sponsors, seek financing, complete engineering studies and pursue the necessary permits and authorizations along the pipeline route from north of the Arctic Circle, through Alaska, the Yukon and Alberta. Canadian pipeline operator and project proponent, TransCanada Corp., has said options are wide open for assembling a sponsor consortium that could include gas producers, other pipelines and aboriginal corporations participating in any or all of the pipeline construction.

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