{"id":9481,"date":"2016-07-26T08:01:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T15:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/exxon-exec-rebuts-agdc-president-on-gasline-status\/"},"modified":"2016-07-26T08:01:03","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T15:01:03","slug":"exxon-exec-rebuts-agdc-president-on-gasline-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/exxon-exec-rebuts-agdc-president-on-gasline-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Exxon exec rebuts AGDC president on gasline status"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE<\/strong> <\/strong>\u2014 ExxonMobil Development Co. Vice President Jim Flood sent a letter to Alaska Gasline Development Corp. President Keith Meyer Friday to correct \u201cinaccuracies\u201d in a July 13 letter from Meyer to state Senate leaders \u2014 all regarding the status of the $45 billion-plus Alaska LNG Project.<\/p>\n

Flood\u2019s letter contends Meyer \u201cmischaracterized\u201d the ExxonMobil\u2019s position as not wanting to continue pursuing the LNG export plan in Meyer\u2019s July 13 letter to Republicans Senate President Kevin Meyer and Resources Committee Chair Sen. Cathy Giessel, as well as in lengthy testimony during a June 29 joint Resources Committee hearing.<\/p>\n

The letter from AGDC\u2019s Meyer to the senators states the company has a \u201clack of willingness to chase the project,\u201d a statement Flood objects to in his correspondence.<\/p>\n

Flood also emphasizes that ExxonMobil supports investigating a state-led project, as it may allow the participating parties to capture the state\u2019s federal tax-exempt status and improve the project\u2019s currently strained economics.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs previously stated, we are fully committed to developing a (project) plan that can successfully benefit all parties, including Alaskans,\u201d Flood wrote.<\/p>\n

Under its current equity share model, with the state, BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil each providing a financing share equal to their gas ownership, it appears the project would likely be delayed for at least some time because of depressed worldwide LNG and oil markets.<\/p>\n

Much of the commentary from the producer companies regarding the project is in generalities, but ConocoPhillips representatives said at the June 29 Resources hearing that they don\u2019t foresee the company supporting a decision to advance to the front-end engineering and design (FEED) stage next year \u2014 wholly about a $2 billion investment.<\/p>\n

Flood made it clear that his employer does not feel the same way as its producer partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no time did ExxonMobil ever suggest we \u2018shelve the project,\u2019\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Additionally, he stated that the company is also comfortable continuing the \u201cstage gate\u201d approach of the original equity-share project process, which AGDC\u2019s Meyer indicated at the hearing may not be as necessary under a state-led plan.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Flood reiterated that ExxonMobil insists that a long-term fiscal agreement between the state and the company is necessary to underpin the massive project before the company is willing to enter FEED.<\/p>\n

Commercial negotiations between the companies and the state were suspended in February after months of slow-going, state officials have said, and ExxonMobil \u201cremains ready to re-start discussions on gas sales to support the state-run project,\u201d Flood wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope this letter will help clarify the historical facts and allow us to be more successful in working together in the future. We look forward to working with you to transition the project to the state, explore options to reduce the cost of supply, re-engage on gas sales negotiations, and develop the necessary fiscal regime to commercialize North Slope gas,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

The letter was \u201ccc\u2019ed\u201d to several legislators, Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack, officials in Gov. Bill Walker\u2019s office and the Alaska leaders of BP and ConocoPhillips among others.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Elwood Brehmer is a reporter for the Alaska Journal of Commerce. He can be reached at elwood.brehmer@alaskajournal.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE \u2014 ExxonMobil Development Co. Vice President Jim Flood sent a letter to Alaska Gasline Development Corp. President Keith Meyer Friday to correct \u201cinaccuracies\u201d in a July 13 letter from Meyer to state Senate leaders \u2014 all regarding the status of the $45 billion-plus Alaska LNG Project. Flood\u2019s letter contends Meyer \u201cmischaracterized\u201d the ExxonMobil\u2019s position […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9481"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}