Murkowski signs appropriations bill for Alaska gas pipeline

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Apr. 14 -- Alaska Gov. Frank H. Murkowski recently signed a law that appropriated $1.65 million in state funds to help cover costs in bringing North Slope natural gas to market.

It includes $650,000 to fund efforts by the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority to develop an LNG export project. This will permit the authority to continue efforts to identify and develop markets both on the US West Coast and in Asia, officials said. It also will allow ANGDA to evaluate specific intrastate needs on the Kenai and in the Anchorage area, as well as development of a petrochemical industry within Alaska.

An additional $1 million was authorized for issues common to all the pending pipeline proposals, including legal opinions on the use of tax exempt bonds to finance the pipeline, market evaluations, permitting issues, intrastate gas consumption, and studies of the pipeline's impact on communities along its proposed route.