Page 32: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 1973)

El Paso Studies Feasibility

Of Multibillion-Dollar Project

To Supply LNG To West Coast

El Paso Natural 'Gas Company has an- nounced it has begun studies on the feasibility of a multibillion dollar project which would carry natural gas that would be produced in conjunction with the oil from prolific fields in the Prudhoe Bay area to a South Alaskan terminal facility, where it would be liquefied and transported by specially built tankers to the West Coast of the United States. The pro- ject under study, it said, would involve one of the largest private investments in Alaskan history.

Howard Boyd, chairman of the board of El

Paso Natural Gas Company, said in Anchorage on December 4, that preliminary studies in- dicate that it would be economically and eco- logically feasible—and that costs should be comparable to the cost of gas delivered by an all-overland route.

El Paso is also engaged in studies of a pipe- line which would bring gas to the U.S. via

Canada.

Mr. Boyd said that the company's studies were based on construction of a 42-inch pipe- line which would extend some 790 miles across

Alaska from prolific fields in the Prudhoe Bay area to a South Alaskan terminal facility.

There, a plant for liquefaction of the gas would be constructed along with related facilities. At this point, a fleet of LNG tankers would re- ceive the liquefied natural gas (LNG) and would transport it to the West Coast, where it would be regasified and used to meet critical energy needs of the western third of the United

States.

He said that total investments, based on the preliminary studies, would ultimately involve more than $2 billion in Alaskan facilities and additional investments of more than $1 billion for the tanker fleet and terminal facilities.

Mr. Boyd, who spoke before the Anchorage

Chamber of Commerce, said that the project would have a number of major benefits to citi- zens of Alaska. Among them, he said, are: 1. Substantial employment and expenditures in the state during the construction phase of the project. 2. Continuing employment to citizens of the state during the years to come. 3. Related income to citizens not directly connected with the production, liquefaction and transportation of the gas supplies, as a result of operating expenditures in Alaska over the estimated 25-year life of the project. 4. Property taxes which would be paid as a result of the huge investment in facilities.

These taxes, he noted, would continue over the life of the facilities. 5. Gas would be made available to the most populous areas of Alaska, including those com- munities along the route of the pipeline, stimu- lating economic growth. The pipeline is also expected to traverse an area where there are mineral deposits that require energy supplies for their exploitation. 6. The trans-Alasfcan line would be beneficial to the U.S. balance! of payments and trade. In addition, profits onjall the U.S. project would accrue to U.S. interests, and resulting taxes on such profits would be paid to the U.S. treasury.

Mr. Boyd said that the studies now being conducted include attention to cost-saving which might be involved in paralleling a pro- posed oil pipeline traversing Alaska, and which would redound to the state of Alaska, produc- ers of the oil and gas and to the ultimate con- sumers.

El Paso Natural Gas Company is one of the nation's largest pipeline companies, operating over 23,500 miles of lines serving 11 Western states. It is also active in the fields of petro- chemicals, plastics,' synthetic fibers, textiles, agricultural chemicals, insurance, wire fabrica- tion, oil and gas production, LNG, mining and land development. The El Paso enterprises have net assets of nearly two billion dollars and more than 13,000 employees. The company has been a leader in efforts to alleviate the U.S. energy shortage—through projects for impor- tation of LNG, nuclear stimulation of "tight" gas formations, coal gasification, and domestic exploration.

Moran Tug Reaches Lisbon

With First Trans-Atlantic

Barge Load Under Public Law

The completion of the first trans-Atlantic voyage of an ocean tug and barge carrying cargo under U.S. Public Law 480 was an- nounced by Thomas E. Moran, president of the

Moran Towing Corporation.

The American-flag barge Caribbean, towed by the 4,320-horsepower ocean tug Betty Mo- ran, arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, on December 8 with a bulk cargo of 15,944 long tons of yel- low corn. The cargo was loaded at Norfolk,

Va., in November under the U.S. Government's food aid program.

While Public Law 480 cargoes have been shipped by barge to Caribbean and South

American ports—it was pointed out—this 3,- 187-mile voyage is the first of its kind across the Atlantic.

The 475 - foot - long 16,744-deadweight-ton

Caribbean is one of the largest seagoing barges ever built in the United States.

The Caribbean was constructed in 1966 for the Caribbean Barge Corporation—a subsidi- ary of the Moran Towing Corporation—by the

Bethlehem Steel Corporation at their Sparrows

Point yard in Maryland.

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