DistantNews
Support us
🇰🇷 South Korea /Energy & Infrastructure

Trump Again Urges South Korea and Japan to Join Costly Alaska LNG Project

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Trump said South Korea and Japan could help develop pipelines and access Alaska’s energy resources, apparently referring to the Alaska LNG project.
  • The proposed project would move gas from Alaska’s North Slope to Nikiski through a 1,300-kilometer pipeline before exporting LNG to Asia.
  • The venture has faced doubts over its $44 billion cost and commercial viability, with major energy companies withdrawing after feasibility reviews in 2014.

Donald Trump has again pointed to South Korea and Japan as possible participants in Alaska’s ambitious LNG project, saying the countries could invest in pipelines and take fuel from the state.

Trump made the comments while speaking with reporters at the White House. He was discussing plans to visit Alaska to support Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan ahead of the November midterm elections. His remarks appeared to refer to a project designed to carry natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to Nikiski in the south, where it would be liquefied and shipped to Asia.

The project would require a pipeline stretching about 1,300 kilometers and is expected to cost $44 billion. Once completed, it is projected to produce 20 million tons of LNG annually. Since taking office, Trump has signed an executive order supporting an Alaska gas pipeline and has repeatedly called for Korean and Japanese involvement.

You have Japan. You have South Korea. You have all of these people now going to Alaska to load up with fuel, load up with oil, build pipelines, everything else.

· Donald TrumpTrump described South Korean and Japanese interest in Alaska’s energy resources and pipeline development.

The administration has also suggested that investment commitments made by Seoul and Tokyo under trade agreements could support the Alaska project. South Korea agreed to invest $350 billion in the United States, while Japan pledged $550 billion, in exchange for lower U.S. reciprocal tariffs on their goods.

The Alaska LNG venture has long carried substantial financial risk. Alaska’s harsh climate makes long-distance pipeline construction expensive, and ExxonMobil, BP and other companies left the project in 2014 after feasibility reviews failed to convince them it would be profitable.

We made a deal with South Korea and with Japan that gives us money, the likes of which nobody's ever seen before

· Donald TrumpTrump linked trade agreements with South Korea and Japan to large U.S. investment commitments.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog