Planned LNG plant in Alaska seeks equipment from sanctioned Russia firm

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - The head of Polar LNG, a company that plans to build a liquefied natural gas plant on Alaska's North Slope, said his company is hoping to buy discounted equipment from a Russian project on which Washington has imposed sanctions.

Polar LNG launched on Monday. Joel Riddle, its president and CEO, in an interview said the company wants to make a final investment decision on its plant in mid-2027 and start producing LNG in 2029 or 2030.

• Polar LNG is hoping to get approval from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control to buy the equipment, including a partially built liquefaction plant, from Arctic LNG 2. The administrations of former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump have both imposed sanctions on the project. The U.S. Treasury Department had no comment. Novatek NVTK.MM, which owns about 60% of Arctic LNG 2, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• The first phase of the project will take $8 billion to $9 billion in investments to produce 7 million tons a year of the fuel that could be sold to Japan, South Korea and other countries. The plant could be expanded in one or two more phases that would require similar investments.

• Gentry Beach, a friend of Donald Trump Jr, is one investor in the project, Riddle said. Beach did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Polar LNG wants to finance more than half of the project with U.S. capital, but is open to investments from companies in Japan and other countries.

• The project would collaborate with another project called Alaska LNG that the Trump administration is hoping will be built in coming years.

• The North Slope is subject to severe weather and impacts from climate change that have driven some energy companies from the region. Riddle said the equipment the company seeks to buy is Arctic tested. The company also plans to buy six icebreakers.