Senior Taiwan official visits site of new Alaska LNG project
TAIPEI, June 7 (Reuters) - A senior Taiwanese official said on Saturday he had this week visited the site of a potentially enormous new liquified natural gas (LNG) project in Alaska that the Trump administration has been pushing hard to allies in Asia as a supply option.
Energy developer Glenfarne had said on Tuesday that 50 firms had formally expressed interest in contracts worth more than $115 billion from its Alaska LNG project, a massive infrastructure deal championed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Writing on his Facebook page, Pan Men-an, secretary-general to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, said he had attended an energy conference in Alaska at the invitation of U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and visited the state's North Slope.
Phase One of the project is expected to deliver natural gas about 1,230 km (765 miles) from the North Slope to the Anchorage region.
"Despite the freezing temperatures, we talked enthusiastically about building resilience and responsibility as democratic partners in the face of global climate change and the challenges of authoritarianism," Pan wrote.
"In the face of trade challenges and international turbulence, we have no choice but to rise to the occasion," he said, without mentioning whether he had signed any deals while there.
The presidential office said late on Friday that Pan had been accompanied by Fang Jeng-zen, chairman of Taiwan's state-owned energy company CPC.
CPC in March signed a non-binding agreement to buy LNG and invest in the project, a move Taiwan's president has said would ensure the island's energy security.
If built, the Alaska LNG project will export up to 20 million metric tons of the superchilled gas a year.
It would open direct access for U.S.-made LNG to Asian markets without having to go through the Panama Canal or around the Horn of Africa, reducing transit time and costs.
Taiwan has pledged to massively ramp up its purchases from the United States, including energy, to reduce a yawning trade surplus that has angered Washington.
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Valeria was about to take a bite of pizza when the Iskander landed nearby. The blast from the Russian missile shattered all the windows in the Mykolaiv CHP (combined heat and power) plant in southern Ukraine, igniting a gas fire and propelling shrapnel through the canteen. 'I had imagined what I might do when a missile or a Shahed [drone] comes, like if it really happens to me, and I had told myself I should be really calm at that moment,' says the 27-year-old. She and her twin sister Alyona led a hyperventilating colleague out of the plant's office to her car. The trio were still driving away when the second Iskander hit, devastating the plant's boiler-room. After that Oct 10 strike, the plant was targeted again, in January, February and May, each time with Shahed drones. On Thursday night, Russia renewed its campaign against Ukraine's national energy infrastructure, breaking a loosely followed ceasefire Vladimir Putin agreed with Donald Trump in a phone call on March 18. Power facilities were struck in the western city of Ternopil and targeted in other areas, days after Putin warned he would avenge Ukraine's elaborate 'Spiderweb' attack on Russia's bomber fleet. 'The scumbags haven't hit the energy sector en masse for five months,' wrote Myroshnykov, a Ukrainian military blogger. 'Ballistics on transformers – only the scumbags could do that.' On Friday night, Moscow struck the northeastern city of Kharkiv with what the mayor described as the 'most powerful attack' since the start of the war, involving more than 50 Iranian-made drones, one rocket and four guided bombs. At least three people were killed and 22 wounded in the devastating strikes. Harrowing scenes saw bloodied residents being carried out on stretchers from their homes by rescue workers wearing gas masks. Respite is direly needed. Ukraine faces shortfalls in both electricity and natural gas production after the wave of Russian attacks – and every hour without further explosions allows for the progress of repairs. Few appreciate the challenges like Dmytro Myroshnychenko, the chairman of Mykolaiv CHP plant. On a tour of the facility, he grimly points out the legacy of Russia's bombardment: the boiler-room is a tangle of charred iron and splintered rebar; shrapnel perforates an oil tank; flaps of corrugated roof panelling limp over the walls of the destroyed turbine control centre. In full health, the Mykolaiv CHP heats 160,000 homes and provides 26MW of electricity to the national grid. The latter was ended by a February drone strike. That the plant managed to deliver heat over winter is testament to the grit of its staff. After the first Iskander strike in October, Mr Myroschnychenko ran through the facility to check if anyone was injured. 'My first thought was, everyone is lying on the floor,' he says. 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