TPT July 2008

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From the AmericaS
91 July 2008 ›
the eco-friendly choice for moving freight. He noted that trucking
firms also use the rail lines. The US-based United Parcel Service
Inc (UPS), the world’s largest package delivery company, is the
railroad industry’s biggest customer.
• As for the payload and direction of the new, busier traffic on
US railroad tracks, the Post noted that China’s unquenchable
appetite for coal, together with the escalating American demand
for Chinese goods, means more freight is passing through ports
in the Northwest on its way to and from the Far East. “Coal
still accounts for the most tonnage hauled by U.S. railroads,”
Mr. Ahrens wrote. “But it is the ocean-crossing shipping
container that has lit a rocket under the railroad industry.”
To spare a thought for the mere humans contributing to the
railroad renaissance, passenger traffic by rail is also increasing.
Amtrak, the federally owned and operated nationwide intercity
rail service, marked its fifth consecutive year of increased
passengers in 2007. Foot traffic was up 6 per cent from 2006.
Oil and gas
A gas pipeline from the North Slope to
‘the Lower 48’ moves closer to realization
“With uncertainty surrounding our ability to meet future natural gas
demand, and the potential for more exploration in Alaska as a result
of constructing the pipeline, this project is vital,” said US Senator
Pete Domenici, of New Mexico, the top Republican on the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Mr Domenici, speaking in early April, was referring to the decades-
old plan for a pipeline to transport natural gas from Alaska’s energy-
rich North Slope to markets in the contiguous states of the nation.
Suddenly there is keen interest in the undertaking, with a pair of
feasible proposals having been put forward.
As reported in the Chicago Tribune for 9 April, two of the world’s
largest oil companies had just disclosed plans to jointly develop a
pipeline. Britain’s BP PLC and ConocoPhillips, based in Houston,
Texas, said that over the next three years they are prepared
to spend $600 million in the first phase of the $30 billion project.
The New York Times reported that the pipeline may eventually be
extended to Chicago.
‘Denali – the Alaska Gas Pipeline’ is projected to deliver natural gas
2,000 miles from Alaska to Alberta, Canada, thence into an existing
pipeline system. Or, BP and ConocoPhillips said, if necessary they
might build an additional 1,500-mile extension to US markets. The
companies said the pipeline would eventually move about 4 billion
cubic feet of natural gas per day, accounting for about 6 per cent to
8 per cent of daily US consumption.
Alaska is also reviewing a proposal by TransCanada Corp (Calgary,
Alberta), which submitted an application in November 2007 for a
state-backed license to build a pipeline. Only one is likely to prevail
in the competition to move ahead on a project that has been held for
two years in a legislative stalemate, after years of talk but little action.