A senior Taiwanese official said on Saturday he had this week visited the site of a potentially enormous new liquified natural gas (LNG) project in Alaska that the Trump administration has been pushing hard to allies in Asia as a supply option.
Energy developer Glenfarne had said on Tuesday that 50 firms had formally expressed interest in contracts worth more than $115 billion from its Alaska LNG project, a massive infrastructure deal championed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Writing on his Facebook page, Pan Men-an, secretary-general to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, said he had attended an energy conference in Alaska at the invitation of U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and visited the state’s North Slope.
Phase One of the project is expected to deliver natural gas about 1,230 km (765 miles) from the North Slope to the Anchorage region.
“Despite the freezing temperatures, we talked enthusiastically about building resilience and responsibility as democratic partners in the face of global climate change and the challenges of authoritarianism,” Pan wrote.
“In the face of trade challenges and international turbulence, we have no choice but to rise to the occasion,” he said, without mentioning whether he had signed any deals while there.
The presidential office said late on Friday that Pan had been accompanied by Fang Jeng-zen, chairman of Taiwan’s state-owned energy company CPC.
CPC in March signed a non-binding agreement to buy LNG and invest in the project, a move Taiwan’s president has said would ensure the island’s energy security.
If built, the Alaska LNG project will export up to 20 million metric tons of the superchilled gas a year.
It would open direct access for U.S.-made LNG to Asian markets without having to go through the Panama Canal or around the Horn of Africa, reducing transit time and costs.
Taiwan has pledged to massively ramp up its purchases from the United States, including energy, to reduce a yawning trade surplus that has angered Washington.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Tom Hogue)