Alliance

Sponsors of liquefied natural gas (LNG) development in British Columbia staked a claim Monday to national significance by rebranding their six-year-old trade association.

After a year of testing Canadian demand for natural gas export service, Alliance Pipeline Ltd. has presented a C$2 billion ($1.6 billion) proposal for a 25% capacity increase.

Canadian natural gas exports returned to full capacity on Alliance Pipeline over the weekend after no damage was detected during an emergency partial shutdown to inspect a spring flood site in northwest Alberta.

Alliance Pipeline launched a test Monday of market demand for a potential 30% increase of delivery capacity along its 3,848-kilometer (2,291-mile) delivery route for liquids-rich natural gas to Chicago from northern British Columbia and Alberta.

Alliance Pipeline will shut down its system from 8 a.m. CST next Wednesday (Oct. 12) until 8 a.m. CST Oct. 19, cutting an estimated 1.9 Bcf/d of gas, to facilitate pipe removal and tie-ins of new pipe at a crossing of a major highway project near Regina, Saskatchewan.

Seven Generations Energy Ltd. (7G) said Wednesday it has completed construction and commissioning of its Cutbank processing plant at its Kakwa River project in northwest Alberta, bringing it onstream a week early and 18% under budget.

The state of Alaska extended its cooperation agreement with Japan-based consortium Resources Energy Inc. (REI) to develop Cook Inlet natural gas (see Daily GPI,Dec. 29, 2014). The agreement extension comes three months after Gov. Bill Walker met with more than 25 companies and government agencies, including the prefectures of Kyoto and Hyogo, during an international liquefied natural gas (LNG) conference in Tokyo, where he told more than a thousand attendees of the Alaskan LNG opportunity (see Daily GPI,Sept. 23). The agreement, which was extended two years to Dec. 14, 2017, encourages the development of Cook Inlet natural gas to provide Alaskans low-cost energy while also supplying Japanese consumers. “The world market will certainly benefit from Alaska’s rich natural gas reserves, but my No. 1 priority is ensuring that we work toward affordable energy for Alaskan families and businesses.” Walker said. “Extending this agreement with REI shows Japanese consumers that Alaska is committed to exporting liquefied natural gas.”

Seven Generations Energy Ltd. (7G) announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement with two divisions of Tenaska, one of the top five natural gas marketers in North America, over the management of 7G’s growing natural gas transportation capacity to the Midwest via the Alliance Pipeline system.

Alliance Pipeline announced Thursday that it had restarted its mainline system from northern British Columbia and Alberta to Chicago, six days after it halted operations to clean poisonous contamination out of the system (see related story).