Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (C) speaks at a joint media interview session held at Conrad Hotel in Seoul on March 26, 2025, in this photo provided by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s possible participation in the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project will likely be viewed “favorably” in tariff negotiations with the Donald Trump administration, Alaska’s governor has said.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy made the remarks in a roundtable interview with Yonhap News Agency and other news outlets on Wednesday, during his visit to Seoul to discuss the LNG project with government officials and major companies here.
“I don’t represent the United States of America diplomatically. However, I would say that anytime our friends purchase products in the U.S., purchase gas from the U.S., invest in the U.S., that is always going to be looked favorably upon,” he said.
“This project is a win-win-win for Korea, Alaska and the United States.”
James Kim, chairperson of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM), said the LNG project is “really important” as it could reduce the trade deficit the U.S. has with Asian countries, including South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
“Under Trump 1.0, the trade deficit (with South Korea) was around US$20 billion, but under Trump 2.0, it’s up to $65 billion,” Kim said.
“President Trump and governor (Dunleavy), they have a very, very good relationship, and as you can see when President Trump spoke about Alaska, he really, really supports Alaska’s energy project.”
Dunleavy said South Korea’s purchase of Alaskan LNG will “set all the other things into motion,” including tariff discussions and partnerships with Korean companies.
“If Korea needs the gas, which it looks like they do … then all of these other considerations, such as trade imbalances, tariffs, and are Korean companies going to be involved, will all have a positive outcome,” he said.
Acting President Han Duck-soo (R) meets with Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy at the government complex in Seoul on March 25, 2025, in this photo provided by Han’s office. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
The estimated US$44 billion project has recently drawn attention as a prominent bargaining chip for Asian countries, including South Korea, in their tariff negotiations with the U.S. administration. Washington imposed 25 percent duties on all steel and aluminum imports on March 12 and plans to further introduce reciprocal tariffs on a country-by-country basis next month.
In an address to the U.S. Congress earlier this month, Trump picked out South Korea and Japan as potential partners for the project, stating that they were interested in investing trillions of dollars each.
Under the project, the U.S. government plans to build a 1,287-kilometer pipeline from the North Slope, a massive, proven reserve of natural gas of over 3.4 trillion cubic meters, to southern Alaska.
The project aims to produce 20 million tons of LNG annually and start exporting them, primarily to Asia, as soon as 2030.
Earlier this week, Taiwan’s state-run energy company CPC Corp. signed a letter of intent with the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) to buy 6 million tons of Alaskan LNG, becoming the first foreign entity to officially join the project.
Now the pressure is on Japan and South Korea, who are the second- and third-largest LNG importers in the world, respectively.
During his two-day trip to Seoul, Gov. Dunleavy met with senior government officials, including acting President Han Duck-soo and Industry Ministry Ahn Duk-geun, as well as executives from key South Korean conglomerates, including SK, POSCO and Hanwha, to discuss the project.
Highlighting the benefits of importing Alaskan LNG, the governor of Alaska said it only takes a relatively short period of about nine days to ship clean gas from Alaska to South Korea as Alaska is the closest U.S. state to Seoul, and the transportation would take place right across the “uncontested waters” in the Pacific Ocean.
Typically, it takes about two to three weeks to transport LNG from Texas to South Korea, and more than a month if there are disruptions in the flow through the Panama Canal.
“Because of this closeness to Korea, there’s tremendous interest in buying (Alaskan) LNG because it should be the direct shot, the lowest cost available in the market without any interference during any form of geopolitical event,” said Brendan Duval, chief executive officer and founder of Glenfarne Group, a private joint developer in the project.
Duval said South Korean companies can also become active partners in the project, with steelmakers possibly supplying steel slabs and pipes for the gas pipeline construction in the northernmost U.S. state.
“And as you know, Korea is the world leader in producing LNG carriers,” he added, explaining that two ships are needed for every million tons of LNG, amounting to 40 LNG carriers for the project.
On concerns over the economic feasibility of the decades-old project, Dunleavy said the woes are outdated.
Alaska has been pushing for the project since the early 2010s, with oil and gas giants like ExxonMobil initially joining the project but later pulling out in 2016 after a feasibility study showed it was one of the least competitive LNG projects in the world at the time.
“The economics are different because of the advancements in technology, the advancements in construction and because the demand for gas is very different today,” Dunleavy said.
The importance of gas has sharply increased over the past few years with the development of artificial intelligence (AI), supercomputing and the global community’s push for carbon-free economy, which have “changed the economics of the project for the better,” he added.
In terms of cost, the Glenfarne CEO explained the Alaska LNG project can deliver gas from the gas field to the intake of the LNG facility “easily” on a levelized cost of $3, which is “equal to or less than” the Henry Hub pricing, a benchmark price for natural gas in the U.S.
“So at the end of the day, you are just calculating what is the cost of constructing the LNG facility,” he said.
Asked about potential incentives for South Korea if it decides to join the project, Dunleavy said he is not aware of any promised incentives as the project is attractive on its own.
(Yonhap)
