Alaska project: Denali pipeline not a publicity stunt
Denali pipeline 'not a publicity stunt'
The Denali pipeline project proposed by oil giants BP and ConocoPhillips is not a publicity stunt to sway lawmakers away from backing off a proposal by TransCanada said Bud Fackrell, president of the joint venture.
Fackrell tried to convince skeptical state lawmakers during a legislative hearing on Governor Sarah Palin's gas line proposal that the joint project is legitimate and on a progressive track this summer.
Denali is a competing project to Palin's preferred choice, the one proposed by TransCanada under the state's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act.
Lawmakers have until 2 August to support or reject Palin's recommendation to award TransCanada an exclusive licence to TransCanada, said Reuters.
Lawmakers backing the oil companies' effort say they favour this plan because it doesn't require the $500 million in seed money that would go to TransCanada along with the exclusive licence to pursue federal permits.
Fackrell stressed that Denali is a separate pipeline company and deferred questions about fiscal issues related to natural gas production, royalties and taxes to the parent companies.
Senator Bill Wielechowski of Anchorage asked why the Denali project offers no guarantees of progress toward construction or long-term commitments from the oil producers seeking to build the pipeline.
Fackrell said the commitments are in place and in practice with workers in the field right now.
Representative Mike Doogan of Anchorage, wasn't satisfied and provided the strongest push back.
He said cost overruns on the producer-constructed, 800-mile (1287 kilometres) trans-Alaskan oil pipeline more than 30 years ago should be a red-flag to anyone backing a line owned by the North Slope leaseholders.
Fackrell cited the two companies' ownership of more than 50,000 miles of pipeline worldwide, while pointing out BP's pipelines in the Caspian Sea and the Gulf of Mexico as examples of strong project development.
Senator Bert Stedman of Sitka, said BP and ConocoPhillips wouldn't risk credibility loss and potential shareholder backlash by investing time and money on a ruse.