Alaska LNG report targets 2028 completion for in-state pipeline

Glenfarne is targeting mechanical completion of the Alaska LNG Phase One pipeline in 2028, with first gas in 2029, according to the project's Oct. 1 semiannual report to the U.S. Department of Energy. The report states that Alaska LNG Project LLC holds no long-term LNG export or supply contracts.

Phase One is a roughly 739-mile, 42-inch line designed to move North Slope gas to Southcentral Alaska, where a Cook Inlet gas shortage looms. The full permitted project also includes an 807-mile pipeline and a 20-million-ton-per-year export terminal at Nikiski, according to the federal permitting dashboard.

The underlying legal and regulatory path cleared last year. On April 15, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied petitions challenging the Energy Department's export orders. Three days later, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved transfer of the project's Natural Gas Act Section 3 authorization to 8 Star Alaska LLC, owned 75 percent by Glenfarne and 25 percent by the state's Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC). In February 2026, 8 Star filed a FERC implementation plan for early Phase One works; construction remains, in the report's words, "in the preliminary planning stages."

Offtake agreements, the contracts that commit buyers to future gas volumes, remain preliminary rather than binding. The report cites one such agreement with PTT for 2 million tonnes per year over 20 years. Glenfarne said Sept. 30 that it holds commercial agreements covering 13 million tonnes per year of a 16-million-ton target, and welcomed President Donald Trump's announcement of a South Korean investment exceeding $50 billion whose structure is not yet final. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung wrote on X that Korea would begin work only once commercial viability is confirmed and Korean legal procedures are met.

The 2028 completion date matches March 23 testimony to the Alaska State House Resources Committee, which also projected LNG exports beginning in early to mid-2031.

"The developer of the project, 8Star, suffers from a transparency gap, especially in regard to project timelines and project costs," Doug Woodby told the Alaska State Senate Resources Committee on April 15. Cook Inletkeeper has written that independent analysts estimate total project costs could exceed $60 billion, above the $44 billion proponents cite, and that Glenfarne has declined to publish a definitive cost estimate.

AGDC told legislators in April 2025 that the state carries no risk unless it chooses to invest further, placing the state's Phase One option at about $800 million: 25 percent of roughly $3.2 billion in equity, or 7.5 percent of funding. A compromise version of the governor's bill addressing the project's property taxes failed in the Alaska State House on a 19-19 vote on July 16.