Alaska Natural Gas Research Articles

Industry restructuring as Alaska’s ethnographic present

Observations of policy interactions in developing an Alaska natural gas pipeline suggest that informants register historical details of energy market restructuring differently than how such details appear to scholars of the natural gas industry. In this article, I present this contrast by reference to the Articraft, a graphic created and disseminated by energy consultants. I employ the Articraft in order to illustrate how industry practitioners encounter a singular idea from a distinct historical period of market restructuring. I argue that the aura of the Articraft provides an example of the imitable character of ethnographic authority: its capacity, that is, for fragmenting the influence scholars assign to history.

Forms of time in Alaska natural gas development

ABSTRACTEnergy companies and builders of energy transportation infrastructure find it difficult to evaluate Arctic natural gas development. Their business critical decisions require the assessment of not just technical risks but intangible issues regarding the future and past interactions of an energy system. These concerns call attention to the problem of time. In this article, I examine three types of time from which efforts to commercialise Alaska natural gas are drawn into the temporality of global energy markets: (1) volatility time, in which price spikes determine outcome; (2) government time, in which law and regulation assist in commercial enterprise, and; (3) entrepreneurial time, in which individuals of industry take initiative. These types of expectation in Alaska natural gas development correspond consequently to three methods for fixing time and space. In short, they are three development time-spaces or chronotopes. By offering these forms of time, taking place between 2000–2005, this article draws attention to concrete visualisations of constructing a pipeline to deliver natural gas from Alaska to continental United States. I argue that these efforts represent precise and well-marked steps and reflect a specific course of development, passing from self-confident ignorance, to self-reflective consultation and finally to genuine understanding.

The condition of market formation on Alaska's natural gas frontier

This article examines the practices through which Cambridge Energy Research Associates disseminates natural gas market analysis among senior-level decision makers in the Alaska state government. Cambridge Energy is a global consulting firm that provides knowledge on the future of energy markets. The US natural gas market has recently undergone a revolutionary transformation as a consequence of changing regulation. This has led to expansion in the services of consulting firms such as Cambridge Energy, who produce analysis on the uncertainties affecting the future. In fall 2000, with a rise in energy prices and renewed interest in commercializing Arctic natural gas, Alaska Governor Tony Knowles awarded a contract to Cambridge Energy to assist with market analysis slated to lead to construction of Alaska's natural gas pipeline. Drawing on ethnographic research at key sites of decision making, I show how domestication of analyses in state and news media discourses serves to govern Arctic gas development.

Foothills Decompression/Recompression Facilities—Unique Power Recovery Application in Gas Pipelines

Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd. is the Canadian sponsor of the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System (ANGTS), a pipeline project selected in Canada and the United States as the means for transporting Alaskan gas reserves to the lower 48 United States. Currently, certain Prebuild portions of the ANGTS are in operation delivering Canadian gas to U. S. markets. A recent system expansion of the Eastern Leg Prebuild to accommodate increased Canadian gas exports entailed the construction of Decompression/Recompression facilities at Empress, Alberta to enable high-pressure operation of the Foothills pipeline while maintaining gas stripping at existing lowpressure extraction plants. The general process of the Decompression/Recompression facilities involves the expansion of high-pressure pipeline gas to conditions acceptable to the low-pressure extraction plants, then the recompression of the residue gas for return to the pipeline at original pressure. By directing the inlet gas through turbo expanders coupled to brake compressors, a substantial portion of the expansion energy is captured and used in providing the first stage of gas recompression. Including supplemental conventional compression, the Decompression/Recompression facilities are capable of providing approximately 37MW (50,000 HP) for continuous gas recompression. Although power recovery with turbo expanders is relatively common in the gas processing industry, such an application for gas recompression in large gas pipelines is unique. This technical paper describes the Foothills Decompression/Recompression facilities with their utilization of turbo expanders for pipeline recompression service, emphasizing the process design as well as the characteristics of the rotating equipment.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System Synthetically Insulated Workpad—An Evaluation of Present Conditions

The purpose of the insulated workpad study, described in the following paper, was twofold. First, the owners of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) needed an evaluation of present conditions of the insulated pad to determine the feasibility of plans by builders of the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System (ANGTS) to reuse the TAPS workpad for parallel construction. Secondly, since the integrity of the elevated support system used by TAPS in insulated workpad areas was dependent on the insulation maintaining a shallow active layer, it was important for Alyeska (the operator of TAPS) to be assured that the insulated pad was performing as designed. The fieldwork undertaken for the study included test pitting and probing to determine the depth of thaw, sampling the insulation, and installing thermistors for long-term temperature monitoring. The insulation samples were tested for several parameters. Total performance of the workpad was better than expected, although several types of problems were encountered. Most were related to construction practices or postconstruction activity.