Alaska is back in the liquefied natural gas export business. The first LNG tanker has called at the ConocoPhillips LNG plant at Nikiski, near Kenai, since late 2012. This follows the company’s reactivation of the plant this spring, company spokeswoman said Friday. The plant has been in a suspended status since late 2012.

The tanker is the Excel, owned and operated by the Belgium-based Exmar shipping group, and it landed Friday morning, May 2. ConocoPhillips could not say how long it will take to load the vessel or the destination of the cargo, although presumably it is in Asia.

The company plans six LNG shipments this year at approximately one-month intervals. ConocoPhillips has authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy to export LNG from the Kenai plant for two years.

The plant was built in 1969 and Phillips Petroleum and Marathon Oil. Phillips later merged with Conoco and subsequently purchased Marathon’s 30 percent share. LNG shipments to Japan were made from 1969 to 2010 under long-term contracts with Tokyo Gas and Tokyo Electric, when the contracts expired. Shipments since then have been on a per-vessel basis.

Plant operations and LNG exports were suspended in late 2012 as natural gas reserves in Cook Inlet were depleted. The measure was taken to reserve gas for regional utilities, which are also supplied by ConocoPhillips. Utilities’ needs are now met through recent new gas discoveries by Hilcorp and other companies, which has now allowed a resumption of exports.