Interior Secretary urges Alaska to build LNG project quickly amid Asian demand

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told an Alaska energy conference Tuesday that the Alaska LNG project is strategically important to the United States and urged the state to move quickly on construction.

Burgum said 650 attendees packed an Indo-Pacific Energy Security Conference in Japan earlier this year, representing 18 countries, and all 18 wanted to buy more energy from Alaska. The conference had expected only a couple hundred people before events in the Middle East increased interest, he said.

Burgum called the Alaska LNG project critically important to Alaska, to the world, and to the United States.

The $50 billion project would build an 800-mile pipeline from the North Slope to a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Nikiski. Federal agencies completed environmental review and permitting for the project in 2020. The permitting process was reinitiated in 2025 for updated biological opinions and renewed authorizations, according to the federal permitting dashboard.

Burgum compared the project to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline built 50 years ago and said timing is critical.

Burgum said no other place in the world could host a $50 billion project that would benefit hundreds of millions of customers while transforming the economy where it is built.

Governor Mike Dunleavy said the project represents the beginning of a golden age for Alaska and praised the federal partnership under the current administration.

Dunleavy said he has never seen more opportunity come from an administration than from this one and has never seen a better partnership with the federal government.

Burgum said shipping from Alaska takes eight days to Tokyo compared to 32 days on a good day from other sources. He said supply routes along United States territorial waters protected by the United States fleet provide additional security.

Burgum said most people in Japan did not know that a very large share of their oil was coming through the Strait of Hormuz. Every person in that country knows it now, he said.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asked why Alaska is not building two pipelines at the same time given the high demand for a product that can be used for heat, light, electricity, and fertilizer, Burgum said.

Dunleavy said disruption in the Persian Gulf has made Alaska's proximity to Asian markets more valuable. He said the state demonstrated it can complete large projects when it pioneered LNG exports to Japan starting in the late 1960s and built the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline in the 1970s.

Dunleavy said Alaska was the first on Earth to produce and export LNG consistently, sending gas to Japan for 50 years starting in the late 1960s.