A Texas company said Thursday it’s in “advanced discussions” with local utilities in Southcentral Alaska to develop a floating liquefied natural gas import terminal in Cook Inlet. . During that call, the company said an integrated LNG terminal would boost declining gas reserves in Alaska and bring energy security to Southcentral amid looming shortages.
The company is proposing what’s called a floating storage and regasification unit. Those are moored to a docking facility. It can offload, vaporize and deliver liquefied natural gas from on land or offshore. Excelerate says the floating units are more cost-effective than land-based units and can be rolled out more quickly — in 1-3 years, rather than 4-6.
Excelerate’s proposal is just the latest in a throng of ideas being suggested as a way to stabilize Southcentral’s natural gas supply. Hilcorp, which produces the vast majority of gas in Cook Inlet, warned energy utilities in 2022 that it would not be able to fill existing natural gas contracts without new development in the Cook Inlet basin., a publicly traded LNG infrastructure company based in The Woodlands, Texas, currently operates 11 floating units worldwide.
In a statement sent Thursday to KDLL via email, Excelerate said southcentral’s local utilities will need to import LNG to augment local gas supplies to meet future natural gas demands beyond 2028. The company said its proposal is a bridge to support utilities transitioning to a “renewable future.”