Today’s Key Takeaways: AOGA conference kicks off with strong representation from House Natural Resources Committee. Glenfarne’s Texan LNG project on track for end of year final investment decision. Pebble mine project holds steady.
OIL:
U.S House Delegation from Natural Resources Committee Kicks off AOGA Conference
James Brooks, Alaska Beacon, August 27, 2025
Ten members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources are visiting Southeast and Southcentral Alaska, including addressing the annual conference of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association
Ten members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources are making an unusual visit to Alaska this week during a break from business on Capitol Hill.
The 45-person committee deals with a variety of issues pertaining to public lands in the United States, and the visit is giving eight Republicans and two Democrats a chance to put their literal hands on the topics they cover.
On Monday, the lawmakers visited Hecla Greens Creek Mine, which produces silver, gold, zinc and lead from a site west of Juneau. They overflew parts of the Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest, and observed Suicide Basin in the Mendenhall Glacier, the origin point for glacial floods that have inundated parts of Alaska’s capital city in recent summers.
Outside the hangars of Ward Air in Juneau, several House representatives talked with reporters.
“Obviously, Alaska is a big natural resources state, so we’re here seeing things on the ground, so that when we’re talking about (them) in Washington, DC, it’s not just an academic exercise for us,” said Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah and a member of the committee.
Among the group was the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, as well as the home-state Republican Rep. Nick Begich.
GAS:
Texas LNG receives FERC final supplemental environmental report
Mikalia Adams, Oil & Gas Journal, August 26, 2025
Texas LNG’s FERC Final Order is expected in November, and the company has reiterated an expectation of a final investment decision by yearend.
Key Highlights
- FERC issued the final supplemental environmental impact statement for Texas LNG.
- Texas LNG expects a final investment decision on the 4-million tpy project by end-2025.
- The final FERC order is anticipated in November, supporting Texas LNG’s development timeline.
Texas LNG Brownsville LLC, an affiliate of Glenfarne Group LLC, is advancing Texas LNG, an export plant being developed in the Port of Brownsville, Tex., following issuance of the final supplemental environmental impact statement (FSEIS) from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on July 31.
The FSEIS concludes FERC staff analysis of air quality and environmental justice matters raised before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the company said in a release Aug. 1.
“The FERC final supplemental EIS for Texas LNG strengthens an already robust record of federal analysis and support and confirms the basis for the existing authorization for this project,” said Brendan Duval, Glenfarne’s chief executive officer and founder.
Texas LNG’s FERC Final Order is expected in November, and the company has reiterated its previous guidance that 4-million tonne/year Texas LNG is targeting a final investment decision by yearend.
Texas LNG has secured customer offtake commitments from EQT Corp., Gunvor Group, Macquarie Group, and a European utility “in a volume sufficient for achieving final investment decision,” the company said (OGJ Online, July 4, 2024; July 2, 2024; Mar. 18, 2024
Kiewit is leading the engineering, procurement, and construction of Texas LNG under a lump-sum turnkey structure.
MINING:
Pebble mine project sticks to proposal in battle to lift veto
James Attwood, Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg News, August 26, 2026
Despite encouragement from Trump administration officials, the company behind the controversial Pebble mine in Southwest Alaska hasn’t yet submitted a revised proposal that could unblock the stalled copper-gold project.
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. hasn’t advanced an “updated submission” for its proposed Pebble mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a status update posted online Monday, adding that “there is nothing currently before the agency to that effect.”
The EPA update follows last month’s decision by the U.S. Justice Department to effectively uphold a veto on the project, dashing hopes that the Trump administration would roll back regulatory hurdles. The absence of a revamped proposal comes despite government officials advising Northern Dynasty that project changes could prompt the government to reconsider. An EPA spokesperson said there were discussions with agency leadership about a potential further submission that would inform any reconsideration.
It’s the latest twist in a yearslong drama over the controversial project near Bristol Bay that comes as the Trump administration seeks to boost domestic supplies of minerals it considers critical to the U.S. economy and national security. Northern Dynasty has touted Pebble as the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold resource, but its plans have drawn opposition from prominent Republicans including the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., as well as conservationists and local fishing operations.
It’s not clear what project changes could possibly mollify EPA officials, but modifications to the handling of mining waste could help address concerns raised since President Donald Trump’s first term in office, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected an essential permit back in 2020.
Three years later, the project was blocked by former U.S. President Joe Biden on concerns it would harm the prolific Bristol Bay salmon industry. The Biden-era Clean Water Act ban, described as a rarely used preemptive project veto, applied specifically to Pebble Limited Partnership’s plan as well as any future proposals targeting the deposit.
Northern Dynasty’s stock rallied earlier in the year following the election of Trump on bets that his pro-resource push would clear a path for the project to proceed. In July, the Vancouver-based firm said discussions with the EPA had taken place, but no settlement had been reached. The stock has fallen more than 60% since last month’s disclosures.
Northern Dynasty said in an Aug. 7 statement that it continued to have “active” negotiations with authorities for the withdrawal of the veto while at the same time pushing ahead with a case in an Alaskan federal district court. The company didn’t immediately respond to email and phone requests for comment.