All-Alaskan Gas Pipeline (AAGP): a mega-project to boost America's energy market

The $50 billion All-Alaskan Gas Pipeline project is going to transport natural gas from the North Slope down to the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage. The project will include apart from the pipeline, the construction of harbors, roads, and state-of-the-art facilities to convert gas into liquid natural gas (LNG) for shipping to the Asian markets and the south. AAGP will have tremendously positive economic impacts on Alaskan citizens and cut America's trade deficit by up to $24 billion a year.

Over the last decades, transfer of energy supplies over large distances through pipelines has proven to be the safest, most efficient, and ecologically friendly means. In Alaska, the oil pipeline has served its purpose, transferring more than 16 billions of barrels, for more than 35 years, despite wildfires and earthquake activity. The same is going to happen now, with the new 800 mile long natural gas pipeline expecting to gain State Legislature's approval in the following months. Upon approval, planning and start of construction are expected by 2018. 

The area of North Slope with its four oil fields, Prudhoe Bay, Point Thomson, Lisburne, and Kuparak, is estimated to include at least 35.4 trillion cubic feet of extractable natural gas. Given the lack of gas pipelines across the state, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the above fields could supply up to 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, reducing today's cost for local residents of Fairbanks from $24 per thousand cubic feet (mcf), down to an average cost of $1.12 mcf, for at least 24 years. Also, according to the Alaska Department of Labor Workforce Development, during the six year construction period, over 6,500 related job positions will be created and 50,000 permanent jobs will be economically stimulated. Also, operation of the pipeline will raise state's gross domestic -product (GDP) by 25% and eliminate unemployment, while new state and local taxes will rise from $3 billion in Year 1, to $5 billion in Year 5, to $24 billion by Year 30.

With the new pipeline, gas will be piped, converted to liquid gas  (LNG) and shipped to Asian markets at a gross cost of $4.72 mcf, plus the cost of building the pipeline. The final number is going to be at least competitive compared to current prices of $10 mcf in Europe, $12 mcf in China and $17 mcf in Japan, making the United States the leading supplier of oil and gas combined in the following years, overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia.