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Wright, at Prudhoe Bay, Makes the Case for the Alaska LNG Pipeline to Asia

June 5, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:09:45

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined CNBC’s Brian Sullivan at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska — mile marker zero of the Alaska oil pipeline — in the interview the Department of Energy uploaded, recorded during a visit the program said brought three sitting cabinet members to Alaska at the same time for the first time. Wright made the case for the Alaska LNG project: a roughly $40 billion-plus pipeline, twinned along the existing oil pipeline right-of-way, carrying North Slope natural gas to an export terminal in southern Alaska, as he described the project. He noted natural gas has been the fastest-growing energy source on the planet for 15 years and about 40 percent of energy growth, as he stated the figures, and pointed to gas now being flared at Prudhoe Bay for lack of a way to move it.

On the economics, Wright argued the pipeline serves two markets: Alaskans themselves, whose population centers he said are running out of affordable energy, and Asian export buyers — six days by sea to Japan or Korea and another day or so to Taiwan, as he stated the shipping times. He said the liquefaction trains, the largest capital cost, are the same whether built in Louisiana or Alaska, and that only the pipeline is the special part of the project, as he presented the cost structure.

Wright said the key to financing is offtake agreements, and that interest from prospective buyers in Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines — some of whose representatives were traveling with the delegation — was tremendous, as he described the demand. On tariffs, he said countries looking to shrink their trade deficit with the United States can easily do so by buying more American energy, as he framed the linkage.

Why it matters

The Prudhoe Bay interview is the Alaska LNG pitch at the wellhead — stranded gas flaring in view of the camera, a right-of-way already cleared, and Asian offtakers presented as the single missing piece between a decades-old proposal and a final investment decision.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins CNBC’s Brian Sullivan - June 2, 2025”, 2025-06-05 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-06-05). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.