Kenai’s liquified natural gas plant could be coming back online, but not in order to ship natural gas out.
Marathon Petroleum is looking to modify its operations at the Kenai LNG plant in Nikiski. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a notice April 12 for the Kenai LNG Cool Down Project. Trans-Foreland Pipeline Company is the name on the application. They moved under the Marathon umbrella last year when Marathon acquired Andeavor, formerly known as Tesoro.
The Kenai LNG plant is currently in what’s called warm idle status and Marathon wants to modify the facility in order to process boil off gas that would power the nearby oil refinery. The modifications would also allow for the import of natural gas. The application doesn’t indicate who the supplier would be. Hilcorp has its stamp on nearly all the gas production in Cook Inlet.
The plant’s export license expired last year, and Marathon has been mum about its full intentions and did not return calls for comment in time for this story. A company spokesman told the investment blog S&P Global the permit would allow them to use the LNG facility, but they are still determining full scale plans for the plant. The Cool Down project would feed seven million cubic feet of gas per day to the refinery. Without FERC’s approval on the project, that gas would likely be flared off, according to a letter to nearby property owners obtained by KDLL. FERC is taking comments until May 3rd.