ConocoPhillips Alaska gas pipeline proposal turned down

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 11 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has notified ConocoPhillips that she rejected the company's proposal to build an Alaska gas pipeline to transport North Slope gas to the Lower 48 states, the governor's office said.

Meanwhile, a 60-day public comment period is under way regarding TransCanada's gas pipeline proposal under the Alaskan Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA). ConocoPhillips's application was outside the AGIA solicitation (OGJ Online, Jan. 7, 2008).

In a Jan. 9 letter to ConocoPhillips's Chief Executive Officer James Mulva, Palin wrote, "Your alternative does not give the state a reason to deviate from the AGIA process."

A ConocoPhillips spokesman in Houston said the company was disappointed, and that the company still believes its pipeline proposal offered "tremendous benefits to the state of Alaska."