08.06.2008
Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom wants to join a gas pipeline project in Alaska and has already made a proposal to BP and ConocoPhillips, its chief executive said on Saturday.
"We are interested, for example, in such big projects as building a gas pipeline from Alaska," Alexei Miller told the St Petersburg Economic Forum.
"We have made the relevant proposals to our partners, ConocoPhillips and BP," he said.
Gazprom, the world's third most-valued stock, is looking to expand outside Europe, to which it is already a key supplier, providing a quarter of its gas needs.
Miller's deputy, Alexander Medvedev, later told reporters Gazprom would also hold talks with the leader of a competing project, TransCanada Corp.
"Given Gazprom's (future) role in LNG supplies to the North American market, we are discussing not only broad cooperation in the LNG business or gas marketing in Canada, but also participation in chains that bring added value," Medvedev said.
In April, Conoco and BP Plc agreed to team up to build a natural gas pipeline costing more than $30 billion to link Alaska's North Slope with markets in the rest of the United States by 2018.
The megaproject has been discussed since the 1970s but has been delayed by high costs and disputes over revenues.
TransCanada Corp, which has an application for a state licence pending before the Alaska legislature, plans another project that would run nearly 2,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the Alberta-British Columbia border.
Conoco, BP and Exxon Mobil Corp, which together control the estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of proved natural gas reserves on the North Slope, refused to participate in the state-backed process, citing concerns over taxes and government control over operations.
Alexei Miller also said he expected Russian gas to be traded in roubles at a gas exchange when Gazprom finishes building its Baltic Sea pipeline, known as Nord Stream, in 2011, but did not give details.
Source: Reuters
