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Revised ASAP gets Corps, BLM approval
In-state gas line project, the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline, gets approval for final supplemental environmental impact statement Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management on March 4 signed a joint record of decision for the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline’s final supplemental environmental impact statement.
ASAP is a project of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., an independent public corporation of the state.
“This Joint Record of Decision and the federal permits for ASAP demonstrate ratification of the environmental and engineering aspects of a trans-Alaska natural gas project and support AGDC’s efforts to bring Alaska’s North Slope natural gas to market,” AGDC said in a March 4 statement. “Because ASAP and Alaska LNG share a common path for 80 percent of Alaska’s LNG pipeline route, this permit and the underlying data will help the Alaska LNG project efficiently advance through the federal permitting process.”
ASAP The federal agencies said the ASAP project would include a 733-mile long natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope to the Enstar distribution system near Big Lake, and a 30-mile lateral line to Fairbanks. ASAP is designed to provide affordable natural gas from the North Slope to Alaskans and is designed to bring natural gas to Fairbanks and Anchorage, the state’s major population centers, as well as to other communities along the route.
The Corps published a final EIS for ASAP in October 2012, but in July 2014 it received a revised application permit application from AGDC identifying material sites, access roads, supporting infrastructure and proposed revisions to the project to increase efficiency. The Corps prepared a draft and final SEIS in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. The final SEIS was published in the Federal Register June 22, 2018.
AGDC will receive a Department of Army permit for discharge of dredged and fill materials into waters of the U.S. Compensatory mitigation is required.
The project requires a 299-mile right of way through federal lands which will be authorized by BLM. ASAP also crosses more than 400 miles of state land.
ASAP is the current version of the bullet line, envisioned in the early 2000s as a way to deal with what was then a projected shortfall in natural gas in Cook Inlet, and the high costs of fuel in the Interior.
More recently AGDC has characterized ASAP as a backup plan, should a larger project not be built. Currently AGDC is pursuing the Alaska LNG project, which would move large volumes of natural gas to Cook Inlet where it would be liquefied for sale and shipment as LNG.
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