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ConocoPhillips President Jim Bowles (left), listens to BP's Doug Suttles shortly after Denali, the Alaska Gas Pipeline, was formed June 2008. The Denali group recently signed a contract with an engineering firm to build a gas treatment plant, a major step toward the gas pipeline project.
File Photo/Rob Stapleton/AJOC
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The Denali pipeline group on Feb. 10 announced the award of an engineering contract for a $2 billion gas treatment plant in Prudhoe Bay.
The plant would be part of a $30 billion-plus Alaska natural gas pipeline project. The contract was awarded to Fluor WorleyParsons Arctic Solutions, a joint venture between major engineering companies Fluor and WorleyParsons.
The joint venture has named CH2M Hill as its Alaska support subcontractor to provide support services during the design phase of the project, Denali spokesman Dave MacDowell said.
"The joint venture recognized the need to select an Alaska-based engineering company with Alaska experience and knowledge," he said.
Denali is owned by ConocoPhillips and BP, and is developing cost estimates for the pipeline in preparation for a 2010 open season.
Technical studies for the plant will include cost estimates, execution planning, project design and all other steps needed to move the project forward, MacDowell said.
The gas treatment plant, which will be the largest of its type in the world, will remove carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other impurities in the natural gas stream. It will also chill the gas and provide compression before shipment of gas through the pipeline.
Modules for the treatment plant will weigh up to 9,000 tons, the press release said.
MacDowell said the amount of the contract is confidential. "However, we can say it is in the range of several million dollars," he said.
CH2M Hill has an established track record of engineering and project management in installation of large process plant modules on the North Slope and elsewhere, including the Russian Far East, through the company's acquisition of Veco Corp., an Alaska oil field services company.
The gas pipeline project planned by Denali would be built from the North Slope to Alberta through Interior Alaska, with a possible onward extension to the U.S. Midwest.
A rival project is planned by TransCanada Corp., which would also involve a gas pipeline from the Slope to Alberta. TransCanada also plans an open season for its project in 2010 and plans to let contracts for engineering studies including its own study of a gas treatment plant on the North Slope.
Tim Bradner can be reached at
tim.bradner@alaskajournal.com.
