Glenfarne never ordered the pipe it claimed to be ready to buy

On November 19, 2025, the president of Glenfarne told legislators that the company was so optimistic about the Alaska LNG project that it would spend hundreds of millions of dollars of its own money to order pipe for the project.

This was when Gov. Mike Dunleavy was insisting that the pipe order would be placed by the end of January.

At that November hearing, Rep. Andy Josephson asked who would pay for the pipe.

“The initial early works, including the pipe purchases, will be funded by Glenfarne,” said Glenfarne President Adam Prestidge.

He said this was above and beyond the $150 million commitment Glenfarne made to advance the project to a final investment decision.

It’s crucial to understand that this was not dependent on getting the Legislature to change the property tax.

It was to be a good-faith demonstration of Glenfarne’s commitment and proof of its readiness to get the pipeline finished by the end of 2028.

“In the very near term, we will also be commencing steel production and place purchase orders for hundreds of millions of dollars of steel that will be carried out by domestic and global steel mills and pipe mills, and delivered here into Alaska,” Prestidge told the Legislative Budget & Audit Committee eight months ago.

The pipe had to be ordered and other steps taken “even while some of the other elements of the project are pending resolution,” Prestidge said.

It was a risk to buy the pipe and cover other early expenses, he said, but it was a necessary risk.

“We intend to make significant expenditures of capital to spend to secure the pipeline to have the pipeline delivered here to have real machinery up and down the pipeline route, preparing the route for greater construction, its gravel, its pads. It’s a tremendous amount of civil work,” he said.

House Speaker Bryce Edgmon then asked the right question, one that apparently escaped the attention of Dunleavy and his gasline advisors.

“How can you get long-term investors if you don’t know where we’re at in terms of tax regime and stability, things like that?” Edgmon asked.

“Obviously if you are making an investment, as we are, earlier in the project than later when all of those things have been fully settled, there is a greater risk to that earlier investment,” said Prestidge.

“By the time you get to the point of putting together the full financing of every single dollar and cent needed to take this project to the completion of construction, all of these risks, all of these questions, everything that we're talking about today, needs to be resolved.”

“However, for some of the these early works for the preliminary things that need to occur in the project in order to maintain that completion timeline, those expenditures, those investments can be made even while some of the other elements of the project are pending resolution.”

“They are frankly more risky because there are assumptions that will be made and parts of the ultimate project package that need to be finalized, but I think our level of optimism in the project will justify making those expenditures.”

But Glenfarne has not placed orders with steel mills for hundreds of millions of dollars of pipe.

Dunleavy now says his predictions turned out to be wrong because he and Glenfarne discovered in the final weeks of 2025 that the pipeline could not be financed under the existing Alaska property tax.

But Glenfarne promised to buy the pipe, an assertion repeated by Dunleavy, without waiting for financing.

It seems like a combination platter of gullibility, incompetence and deception. Plus wishful thinking that Trump would force Asian nations to cover the cost.

At that same hearing on November 12, Rep. Chuck Kopp was impressed that Glenfarne would risk “hundreds of millions of dollars, even without tax questions resolved.” He said the state should take it as a great sign that Glenfarne was willing to spend hundreds of millions before the final financing was in place.

But what has happened is not a great sign.

There is no evidence that Glenfarne has spent hundreds of millions. It has not ordered pipe, moved machinery into place or taken any of the other steps it said would happen in advance of a state tax break and final financing.

The governor keeps calling special sessions. But no one has explained why Glenfarne didn’t order the pipe. It shows a lack of commitment.

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