Slide 10 of 18
Notes:
- If natural gas prices remain high, it is likely that one of the two pipeline routes will be developed.
- This slide is probably familiar to all of you now. The two routes are shown in blue and existing trunk pipelines are shown in red.
- One proposed route is the Alaska Highway option that Bill Britt presented earlier. The second option is the “over the top” pipeline route across the Beaufort Sea from Prudhoe Bay to the Mackenzie delta.
- This is the option I would like to discuss, because MMS would have Right of Way permit authority for the part of this pipeline route that traverses U.S. OCS waters.
- Industry is already performing a number of Geotechnical studies along the planned offshore route. At present, it clearly remains an option under consideration and one that MMS is closely following. MMS is currently preparing an assessment of the regulatory issues associated with the offshore section of this proposed pipeline.
