Taiwan Commits Up to $80 Billion to Alaska LNG as U.S. Pitches Supply Route That Bypasses Hormuz
The United States and Taiwan have moved closer to a sweeping energy partnership, with President Donald Trump announcing that Taipei has agreed to a multi-decade commitment to buy liquefied natural gas from the long-stalled Alaska LNG project. The arrangement, unveiled on Trump’s Truth Social account, is being promoted as a way for Asian economies to secure fuel through a Pacific route that avoids the increasingly contested Strait of Hormuz.
According to Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick secured an offtake commitment from Taiwan valued at between $70 billion and $80 billion. The president said Taiwan would take 30 percent of the project’s output over a 20-year period and contribute an additional $4.4 billion in equity. Trump described the development as the largest energy infrastructure undertaking in Alaska’s history and said it now carries federal backing, with the permits and authorizations required to proceed.
Taiwanese officials offered a more measured account. The island’s Ministry of Economic Affairs indicated it plans to purchase roughly 6 million tons of LNG per year and to join the project, according to Bloomberg, while state-owned CPC Corp. signed a nonbinding letter of intent to weigh a possible investment. Taipei stressed that binding terms remain under negotiation, leaving the headline figures subject to change. The article on which this report is based noted that the stated $70–80 billion value was not reconciled with the 6-million-ton annual purchase figure.
The Alaska LNG project envisions moving natural gas from the state’s North Slope to its southern coast, where it would serve domestic Alaskan customers and be shipped as LNG to markets across Asia. If development stays on schedule, exports could begin as early as 2032. South Korea has been tied to a separate investment in the project estimated at $50 billion to $54 billion, though Seoul has said its involvement will depend on the venture’s commercial viability.
The geopolitical appeal of the deal rests heavily on geography. Conflict in the Gulf region has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which a large share of the world’s seaborne energy traditionally passes. Cargoes leaving Alaska would cross the Pacific directly to buyers in Taiwan, South Korea and elsewhere in East Asia, sidestepping the strait entirely. For energy importers that rely on Middle Eastern supply, the route offers a measure of insulation from disruptions in that corridor.
The announcement reflects a broader reshaping of global energy trade, in which the United States is courting Asian partners to anchor large export projects while those partners seek to diversify away from vulnerable supply lines. For Taiwan, closer energy ties with Washington also carry strategic weight given its tensions with Beijing. Still, with key commercial terms unsettled and first deliveries years away, the practical scope of the commitment will not be clear until binding agreements are signed.
Source: ZeroHedge