Progress is being made on the state’s 24-inch gas pipeline project. A 474-mile state right-of-way was granted to the state’s planned 24-inch gas pipeline July 25, and a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the $7.5 billion project is due in August. The Alaska Gasline Development Corp., a state corporation planning the project, hopes for a final EIS by early 2012, but it will still be a while before dirt is turned. More engineering and technical studies are needed, which will cost about $364 million, before cost estimates will be reliable enough so an “open season” can be held for potential customers.

If the project stays on schedule the open season would be in mid-2013, but it won’t be until the end of that year until it is know if enough gas shippers have signed up for the project to proceed. Similar open seasons, on a larger scale, were held in 2010 for two larger, 48-inch gas pipelines planned from the North Slope through Interior Alaska to Canada. One project has since has dropped out, the BP-Conoco Denali pipeline. The second project, being led by TransCanada and ExxonMobil, is still active, with the benefit of state financial backing, but results of its 2010 open season still aren’t known.  The 24-inch pipeline to Southcentral Alaska is being pushed by the state as a fallback in case the big pipeline doesn’t do, to insure North Slope gas gets to Alaska communities.