Alaska agency pitches strong-arming Japan to finance LNG project #JapanFinance

The Alaska state development agency is seeking to press Japan into investing in a massive natural gas export project by tying it to the Asian nation’s decades-old security agreement with the United States.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority has promised backing for the Alaska LNG project that has for years struggled to attract the tens of billions of dollars in financing needed to build the 800-mile pipeline and gas liquefaction plant for the Alaska LNG project that would allow North Slope gas to be exported to Japan and other Asian customers. But the high cost and difficulty building the project has kept it from proceeding since it was first proposed more than a decade ago.

But in its latest presentation to Alaska’s Senate Finance Committee dated Feb. 17, the authority said President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade tactics had changed the economic picture.

“We are now in a completely ‘transactional’ trade world. ‘If X, then Y,’” the presentation said. “For Japan, the ‘X’ is a defense security agreement with the United States that does not change, protection from China, and avoiding U.S. trade tariffs. If Japan wants ‘X’ then it must give ‘Y.’ What is ‘Y’? Y is new Japanese investment in the United States which Prime Minister [Shigeru] Ishiba said would be $1 trillion dollars. Also, increased LNG purchases from the U.S., and a joint venture linked to Alaskan oil and gas.”