DISCUSSIONS AHEAD:
Officials from Thailand and South Korea are expected to visit the state to talk about an LNG project sometime in the next two weeks, a source said

US President Donald Trump’s energy security council plans to host a summit in Alaska in early June, when it hopes Japan and South Korea would announce commitments to the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Trump has touted the US$44 billion Alaska LNG project, which would deliver gas from the state’s North Slope fields via a 1,300km pipeline for domestic use and send it to customers in Asia as LNG, bypassing the Panama Canal.

While the project has been talked about for years, progress has been limited by cost and the amount of work needed.

Photo: Reuters

Trump, who has pushed allies to buy US energy while simultaneously threatening trade tariffs, has asked Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to support the Alaska plan.

Last month, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) signed a non-binding agreement with the state-run Alaska Gasline Development Corp, to buy LNG and invest in the project, a move President William Lai (賴清德) said would ensure the nation’s energy security.

The summit being planned by the National Energy Dominance Council, which wants to maximize production of oil and gas, would take place on June 2. It was first reported by the New York Times.

The White House and the US Department of the Interior did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Separately, officials from Thailand, which could also be a consumer of the LNG from Alaska, and South Korea are expected to visit the state to talk about the project sometime in the next two weeks, said a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It would be the first visit to Alaska by Thai officials to talk about the project in Trump’s second administration.

South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Duk-geun on Thursday said that he was not aware of a plan to announce its commitment, and that “there are still a lot of things that need to be done” through due diligence of the Alaska LNG project “to understand the local situation more accurately.”

The country is dispatching an inspection team, and results of the due diligence would need to be seen to discuss how it should proceed, Ahn said.