Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2013)

22 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? JUNE 2013 TRANS ARCTIC SHIPPING ROUTES Trans Arctic Shipping Routes (TASR) Infrastructure for Alaska?s LNG and Other Resources It is time for the global maritime industry to push development of Trans Arctic Shipping Routes (TASR) and port facilities along Alaska?s northern coast. Not only for shipping goods from the PaciÞ c to At- lantic and vice versa, but speciÞ cally to facilitate development of specialized ports for LNG exports from Alaska to global markets.Alaska has a limited maritime com-munity mostly in the south: Southeast Alaska is a maritime community; South Central, Valdez, The Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage much less so; Southwest Alaska and Aleutians have Þ shing ß eets and the Western, North Slope coasts and, the Interior have only marginal con- nections to large scale maritime activi- ties. Nearly all Alaska?s vast energy re- sources, LNG and coal, are on the North Slope.Today in Alaska there is a heated de- bate over LNG pipeline routing, as all scenarios call for LNG pipelines from the North Slope to Valdez (for export) or Anchorage for electricity production, domestic heating and in-state industrial use. To my knowledge, no studies of impacts of increased ship trafÞ c into the small Port of Valdez or the limited Port of Anchorage have been done. Both proposals call for an 800-mile pipeline: One, a large diameter high- pressure pipeline to Valdez, the other, a smaller, low-pressure line to Anchorage with a possible spur to Fairbanks. And, separately, there is a proposed gas con- ditioning plant on the North Slope for a trucking operation to bring heating fuel to Fairbanks.Under either scenario, not all re-gions of Alaska share in utilization of North Slope LNG which is in conß ict with Alaska?s economic construct as an ?Owner State,? wherein all parts of Alaska are accorded equal beneÞ t from Alaska?s natural resources. Developing maritime infrastructure on the North Slope will facilitate develop-ment of the TASR and transit across the Arctic Basin between the PaciÞ c and At- lantic and it should be part of the debate. Thinning arctic ice, purpose built ships and specialized port facilities for export-ing LNG from North Slope tidewater to world markets would establish an anchor for commerce across the TASR. For the Alaska?s LNG producers and the state, a North Slope LNG export facility makes economic sense for all. Exporting LNG directly from the North Slope eliminates 800 miles of pipeline and about $50 bil-lion in development costs. It also creates a revenue stream for the producers and the state faster. For Alaska?s residents, North Slope LNG Export means a more rapid distri-bution of resource revenue to them, and developing Alaska?s North Slope LNG export infrastructure does not impair additional development of in-state en-ergy, domestic heating or industrial use through appropriately sized LNG pipe-line projects.As background, in 1992 I joined an Alaskan delegation to Finland for the International North Sea Routes Con-ference hosted by the Finnish Foreign Trade Association, The Finnish-Ameri- can Chamber of Commerce and the State of Alaska. My interest was development Joseph N. Fields III, Alaska International Development Corporation. MR #6 (18-25).indd 22MR #6 (18-25).indd 225/30/2013 12:08:25 PM5/30/2013 12:08:25 PM