Trump says South Korea will finance $50 billion of Alaska LNG; Seoul hasn't committed

President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet said Wednesday that South Korea's government would put just over $50 billion into the proposed Alaska LNG project. None of the speakers said when the money would arrive, and South Korea's government has said the projects it funds in the United States must meet commercial viability standards.

Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office with Gov. Mike Dunleavy, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, U.S. Rep. Nick Begich and Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval, whose company is developing the project. Trump said the Alaska money is part of a Korean investment of up to $200 billion in three U.S. energy projects. The others, according to the administration, are eight nuclear power plants, which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick put at $120 billion including a $20 billion contingency, and a gas-fired power plant in Texas he put at more than $22 billion.

Trump tied the money directly to his trade deal with South Korea. "I reduced their tariffs to 15%. But they paid to get them reduced. And part of that money is going into this project," he said. Lutnick said the projects are "being financed, fully paid for by the Korean government for the benefit of the United States of America."

Trump said the Alaska project would create up to 12,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs, and save Alaska households up to $1,500 a year in energy costs, "maybe even as much as $2,200." The administration did not say how it arrived at those figures.

Asked when the project would be finished, Trump turned the question to others at the event. The answer given was that the pipeline would take three years once the financing comes through, bringing cheaper gas to Alaska, and that exports would start roughly two years after that.

Sullivan said Alaskans and the military would get the gas first, then Asian allies. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it could also supply Hawaii and U.S. territories including Guam and American Samoa. Energy Secretary Chris Wright called it "the largest energy infrastructure project built in 50 years." Dunleavy said, "It's going to transform our great state for 50, 60, 70 years."

South Korea's industry ministry said last week that the Texas plant was the first project selected under the $200 billion program and that it was still considering the nuclear plants and Alaska LNG, Reuters reported. Seoul has said projects in the package must meet commercial viability standards, and the chair of the South Korean parliament's trade committee told Reuters that lawmakers would closely examine whether the investments are profitable.

The project would carry North Slope natural gas roughly 800 miles to Southcentral Alaska, for use in the state and for export to Asia. Glenfarne owns 75% of it and the state owns 25%, through the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. It has not reached a final investment decision, the point at which financing is locked in and construction can begin. Glenfarne said in June 2025 that it expected that decision on the pipeline by the end of 2025. Reuters now reports a target of 2026, with first exports in 2031, and says the supply agreements signed so far are mostly non-binding. A North Slope gas line has been pursued in various forms for decades and has never been built. Alaska News previously reported that Glenfarne has said it also needs changes to the state's tax terms, which the Legislature has not approved.

For Southcentral Alaska, the stakes are near-term: Cook Inlet gas production is expected to run short by the mid-2030s, according to the Wood Mackenzie analysis.

The announcement came a little more than a month before the Nov. 3 election, in which Sullivan, who has long promoted the project, faces Democrat Mary Peltola. Trump used part of the event to praise Sullivan and urge his reelection.