New White House spokesperson says $54 billion tied to Alaska gas project in Korean investment package

New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia said Tuesday that $54 billion was tied to an Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project as part of a Korean energy investment package, despite uncertainty over Seoul’s participation in the project.

Zacharia made the remarks during her first official press briefing at the White House while highlighting the Korean energy investment package worth up to $200 billion that U.S. President Donald Trump announced earlier this month.

“President Trump also unveiled a South Korea energy investment package of up to $200 billion in the United States,” Zacharia said. “This is an amazing deal. This includes as much as $120 billion to build eight large-scale nuclear power plants.”

“In addition to that, there is $54 billion tied to the Alaska LNG pipeline and terminal to service the Pacific Rim and sell fuel to our allies as well as $22.3 billion for a 6-gigawatt natural gas power facility in Texas.”

Following Trump’s announcement, Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, however, said the Alaska project had not yet been finalized, stressing that its commercial viability and other factors would need to be reviewed before any investment decision is made.

Yonhap