INTERNATIONAL
Alaska shakes up LNG project leadership
The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. board fired CEO Keith Meyer on Thursday and replaced him with Joe Dubler, a previous AGDC vice president, as acting CEO, the board said.
Meyer’s departure was not unexpected and is one of a series of changes new Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy is expected to make in the state-owned gas corporation.
“Keith M. Meyer is hereby relieved of his duties as Alaska Gasline Development Corp. president,” the corporation’s boards said in a resolution.
Meyer’s replacement by Dubler is effective immediately, the board said. Dunleavy also replaced four of the corporation’s seven board members last week.
AGDC is managing development of Alaska LNG, a proposed $43 billion project to bring 35 Tcf of confirmed North Slope gas to market. The project includes an 800-mile, 42-inch-diameter pipeline from northern to southern Alaska, a gas treatment plant on the North Slope and a large LNG project at Nikiski, in southern Alaska.
If built, the project would export up to 20 million mt/year of LNG, mostly to Asian markets.
Meyer was hired by AGDC under the administration of former Governor Bill Walker, who was defeated in his bid for reelection by Dunleavy in early November.
Dubler has an extensive background in public finance with Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the state housing corporation, and worked as commercial lead for AGDC from 2010 to 2016 when the state corporation was a one-fourth partner with three North Slope producers in the Alaska LNG Project.
BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil have since withdrawn from participation, leaving the state corporation as leader of the project. The producers have agreed to sell gas to Alaska LNG.
In late 2017, Alaska signed agreements to negotiate for sales of LNG and equity investment with three Chinese companies, Sinopec, Bank of China and China Investment Corp. Agreements were to have been concluded by December 31, 2018, but the deadline has been extended to June 2019, partly because of ongoing U.S.-China trade disputes.