newsminer.com

To those familiar with Alaska history, the discussion the other day about building a small-diameter natural gas pipeline from the northern foothills of the Brooks Range to Anchorage had a familiar ring to it.

Enstar, the utility that serves Southcentral Alaska with natural gas at prices far below those for heating oil, says it has no choice but to look north. Cook Inlet gas fields are running low and Anchorage needs a new supply within six years.

Company officials said they are serious about the $3 billion project and it could provide a new source of economical fuel for Fairbanks utilities and homeowners, in addition to solving the Anchorage energy crisis.

The small-diameter line would pose no economic threat to a large-scale pipeline through Canada, company officials testified in Juneau Wednesday.

This could be great news for the Fairbanks area, as the pipeline would run this way and be finished sooner than a larger project. But keep in mind, we’ve been down this road before.

The map appearing with this column today appeared in the News-Miner on Nov. 20, 1957, when Interior Secretary Fred Seaton announced one of the early steps in designating the Arctic National Wildlife Range (later to become a larger refuge) and the opening of 20 million acres of the North Slope to oil and gas leasing.

Seaton’s action, the News-Miner declared, was the first step toward a natural gas pipeline that would make it cheaper to live in Fairbanks. It was a key decision in the development of an economy based on the oil industry.

The Gubik field on the north side of the mountains was known to contain gas, based on two wells drilled by the Navy in 1951.

Anadarado is now drilling in the area to get a better picture of the gas reserves and their commercial potential. Anadarko approached Enstar about the idea of a small pipeline to Anchorage.

More than a half-century ago, the notion that North Slope gas could lower the cost of living in Anchorage and Fairbanks was a prime topic for conversation.

The 1957 caption accompanying the map shown here said the dark line from the North Slope to Anchorage illustrated one possible route for the gas pipeline.

“Natural gas, brought here by a pipeline which will continue to Anchorage, can be combined with coal and other resources of the territory to create a basic chemical industry, as well as providing economical heating energy for residential and commercial use,” the News-Miner reported.

Three years earlier, a Fairbanks company was formed to promote a natural gas pipeline from the Gubik field to Fairbanks. The firm had studied what it would cost to build a distribution system in Fairbanks, which was a far smaller and more compact town in those days.

A three-year planning and construction schedule was anticipated and the $46 million project had the endorsement of several Fairbanks engineers who had worked with the Navy exploration program — Eugene Davis, Ted Mathews, James Dalton and Ben Atkinson.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Corp. tried for several years to make the project go.

“Costly fuel bills for civilians and the military in the Fairbanks area will be cut in half when the 400-mile natural gas line southward from the Gubik gas field is completed,” the News-Miner reported in 1959.

The story appeared under the headline: “Gubik Natural Gas Line Will Slash Fairbanks Fuel Bills.”

About 70 percent of the homes in Fairbanks were heated by oil and some families spent one-quarter of their income on utilities.

“I don’t know of any area that would benefit more than this one from the availability of natural gas,” said William Norman, president of Colorado Oil and Gas.

One reason the pipeline was never built was that there wasn’t a large enough commitment to buy gas.

News-Miner Publisher C.W. Snedden, who worked behind the scenes on this effort with other Fairbanks business leaders, wanted the military to commit to buying natural gas instead of coal for its installations here.

A military contract would provide the financial foundation for the pipeline to make it economical, they argued.

The idea of getting the military to give up coal for gas did not sit well with those selling coal to the military. Representing the Interior Alaska Fuel Dealers Association, attorney Maurice Johnson claimed that a 10-year contract to buy natural gas would be a subsidy.

A petroleum engineer who defended the natural gas alternative said that no subsidy was needed and that natural gas would be 25 percent cheaper than coal.

“This certainly would not be a subsidy,” said John Rowlett, the petroleum engineer.

“Whether Fairbanks gets gas from Gubik or Anchorage, it’s coming,” Rowlett said on March 1, 1960. “If it comes from Anchorage, we’re at the end of the line. If it comes from Gubik, we’ll be an industrial center. Nobody knows just when natural gas will come to Fairbanks — but it’s coming and the sooner it does, the more quickly Fairbanks will grow in industrial importance.”

The military contract never happened and the project was never built.

Enstar said its project is still in the study phase, but the shortage in Cook Inlet is such that “We need to start making decisions this year.”