Editorial comment
Regulatory certainty and delivery momentum are becoming competitive advantages in North American energy infrastructure, and pipelines sit at the centre of that shift. In December, the US Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council announced the completion of federal permitting for the Alaska LNG project. The 20 million tpy LNG project will monetise North Slope gas, and includes an 807 mile pipeline connecting Alaska’s North Slope to South Central Alaska for export.
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Alaska LNG first received Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41) coverage in 2017 and achieved initial federal approval in 2020. Project sponsor 8 Star Alaska, LLC – majority owned by Glenfarne Energy Transition LLC, with the State of Alaska retaining a 25% stake – reactivated the project’s FAST-41 coverage in February 2025 to complete updated biological opinions and permit renewals. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) renewed the final federal permit on 10 December, completing the federal approvals process.
Federal permitting being completed ahead of schedule is notable given the scale and complexity of this project. At a time when large-scale infrastructure often stalls at the regulatory stage, Alaska LNG illustrates how permitting frameworks such as FAST-41 can deliver predictability: a factor increasingly valued by investors, developers and buyers.
The pipeline is expected to transport an average of 3.5 billion ft3/d of natural gas, with a liquefaction facility enabling safe and efficient export. Early commercial momentum is also emerging: POSCO International (South Korea) has signed a 20 year heads of agreement to secure 1 million tpy of LNG on a free-on-board basis, becoming the project’s first long-term offtaker. POSCO Group will also supply a substantial portion of the steel required for the project’s 1300 km high-pressure pipeline, and is making a capital investment, solidifying Asia’s interest in the Pacific coast project.
In Canada, Fluor Corporation has completed Train 2 of the LNG Canada project. This marks the end of the first phase of Canada’s inaugural LNG mega-project, being built in Kitimat, British Columbia. Execution milestones like these signal a broader shift from planning to delivery across North American LNG infrastructure.
Against this backdrop, capital discipline remains tight. Industry analysts note that companies are showing a growing preference for bankable, regulated, long-life assets, particularly in a world where AI-driven power demand is accelerating approvals for data centre developments and intensifying competition for capital.
In this context, Wood Mackenzie recently described US LNG as “the turnaround of all turnarounds” projecting that by 2030 the US could account for 30% of global LNG output. As Malcolm Forbes-Cable, Vice President of Upstream and Carbon Management Consulting at Wood Mackenzie observes, “The resurrection of US LNG is a crucial reminder of what a resource-rich, free-market country like the US can do. This hydrocarbon hegemony is now being leveraged as a diplomatic tool”.
What these developments underline is not just the scale of North America’s LNG ambition, but the central role of pipelines in converting resource potential into deliverable energy. As permitting clarity improves and projects move decisively into execution, long-term infrastructure decisions increasingly hinge on robust market and system modelling. Scenario-based analysis is now central to understanding how changes in supply, geopolitics and demand could reshape pipeline flows and asset value. RBAC (p. 10) examines this in detail through global gas market modelling that tests how alternative futures could impact infrastructure investment.
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