(FinancialWire)

Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom wants to join a gas pipeline project in Alaska and has already made a proposal to BP and ConocoPhillips

Plc (NYSE: BP) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP).

June 9, 2008 (FinancialWire) Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom wants to join a gas pipeline project in Alaska and has already made a proposal to BP Plc (NYSE: BP) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP).

TransCanada Corp. (NYSE: TRP) (TSX: TRP), which has an application for a state license pending before the Alaska legislature, plans another project that would run nearly 2,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the Alberta-British Columbia border, while Conoco, BP and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), 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.

Gazprom is looking to expand outside Europe, to which it is already a key supplier, providing a quarter of its gas needs. 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.

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