Oil, gas, mining groups meet with Trump officials to discuss Alaskan energy prospects

Alaska industry groups met with three Trump administration cabinet officials Sunday in a closed-door meeting ahead of a major Alaska energy conference set to begin Tuesday.

Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state's two senators, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, also participated in the meeting Sunday, which focused on how to implement President Donald Trump's plans for energy and minerals in Alaska.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, US Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Lee Zeldin, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, listened to concerns raised by oil and gas producer and contractor groups as well as the state's mining association and labor organizations.

The proposed $42 billion Alaska LNG Project, a priority for Trump, will be a part of the larger conference. Government officials from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan will be at the meeting although are not part of the formal agenda.

Several private side meetings are planned during the conference that will include officials from Asian nations. Frank Richards, CEO of the state's Alaska Gasline Development Corp., said the side meetings are being organized to include briefings by Alaska pipeline and industry construction contractors with experience in the Arctic.

The conference itself has become an annual event, organized by Dunleavy, and focuses mainly on new energy technologies, including renewables, which are important for Alaska because of high costs of energy mainly in small rural communities. Updates on development of small nuclear plants appropriate for mines in remote areas and outlying small communities are also part of the conference agenda.

Alaska LNG

The Alaska LNG Project has emerged as a major geopolitical security issue for US allies in the Pacific, the interior secretary said, given rising tensions in the region. "There are 170 million people in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan with no energy resources of their own. We really need a capability to export natural gas to Asia off the US West Coast," Burgum said.

The long-planned Alaska LNG Project will be able to export 20 million tons a year of liquefied gas with shipping times of eight days. LNG shipments from the US Gulf take 24 to 27 days and must transit the Panama Canal, "which is becoming a choke point," in shipping, Burgum said.

Sullivan said the Trump administration is expected to give high priority to US federal support, including implementation of federal loan guarantees currently in law but not implemented under the Biden administration.

The senator also said he expects US investors to provide the major capital needed to build the Alaska LNG Project. "What we really need now are customers" to sign long-term purchasing contracts that will underpin the financing, he said.

Sullivan acknowledged hurdles exist. "I know there are skeptics," that construction costs, particularly for a needed 807-mile, 42-inch pipeline, can be kept in affordable ranges. The Alaska LNG Project has been discussed and planned for years, the senator noted.

Glenfarne Group, the state's new lead developer for Alaska LNG, recently signed a contract with Worley, an international construction company with extensive Arctic Alaska experience, to do final engineering and updated cost estimates for the pipeline portion of the project. Those are expected to be done later this year, and Glenfarne hopes to have investors in place for the pipeline by the end of the year, the company has said.

Other projects, resources

Following Sunday's private meeting, Sullivan said contractors and business groups raised three issues of primary concern they hope will be included in implementing Trump's plans.

One issue is concern around complex federal permitting. "It shouldn't take 20 years to permit a gold mine," Sullivan said, though he didn't identify the mine affected.

Oil and gas industry officials in the meeting pressed for a rollback in restrictive land policies in the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska put in place under President Joe Biden.

"This is an area the size of Indiana," Interior Secretary Burgum said in comments following the closed meetings. ConocoPhillips' Willow project, now under development in the reserve, has attracted intense national interest but actually takes just a few acres for three drill sites, Burgum said.

On June 2, Interior formally announced a move to rescind Biden's 2024 rule, saying it had determined "after a thorough land and policy review" the rule exceeded the agency's statutory authority and "was inconsistent with the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976." The proposal for rescission will open a public comment period, and could face legal challenges. The move followed a March 20 announcement that Interior would pursue opening at least 82% of the NPR-A to drilling.

Industry trade groups like the American Petroleum Institute praised the decision, while environmental groups harshly criticized it.

"It's hard to overstate the havoc this could wreak on the Western Arctic's undisturbed habitat for caribou, polars bears and belugas," said Marlee Goska, Alaska attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Trump's fixation on plundering Alaska's ecosystems for short-term gain is matched only by the stupidity of turning this precious place into a fossil fuel extraction site."

Interior's emphasis on NPR-A production dovetails with language in the US House of Representatives' budget reconciliation bill, which, if passed as currently written, would mandate new lease sales in the NPR-A and Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as Alaska's Cook Inlet.

In the meeting with Burgum, mining groups also raised concerns over federal permits for road access across federal lands to areas where exploration is underway, Sullivan said following the closed session.

A prime example is a permit for a 211-mile industrial road to reach the Ambler Mining District in Northwest Alaska. An access corridor is guaranteed under the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands and Conservation Act, but the Biden administration canceled the permit for the road, which would be built by the state.

On other issues, Sullivan said the Senate will be closely scrutinizing the federal budget reconciliation act recently passed by the House, with attention paid to parts of the bill related to renewable energy, such as the "45-Q" tax credits.

Carbon capture and sequestration, which is of interest in Alaska, will also be a focus of attention, the senator said.