The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Wednesday published a notice in the Federal Register of the liquefied natural gas export application for the Alaska LNG Project, which begins a 60-day public comment period on the application. A week earlier the project’s request for prefiling status was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Daily GPI, Sept. 8). The project is intended to commercialize the state’s long-stranded North Slope gas reserves, primarily through liquefaction and export to Asian markets (see Daily GPI, July 21). “I appreciate the quick action taken by FERC and DOE as we continue to make historic progress on Alaska’s LNG Project, which has already created hundreds of jobs,” said Gov. Sean Parnell. The project is currently in the pre-engineering and design phase, which is expected to be completed by 2016 and cost about $500 million. Alaska state officials met with LNG buyers and government agencies in Japan and South Korea earlier this month to educate them about the project and Alaska’s natural gas resources. Alaska Natural Resources Commissioner Joe Balash signed a memorandum of cooperation in support of the project with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.