Oil Above $70 Spurs Innovation, Khodorkovsky Tells Moscow Times

By Bradley Cook

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the imprisoned former OAO Yukos Oil Co. billionaire, said oil at $70 a barrel or more provides sufficient financial incentive for innovators to develop alternative fuels, the Moscow Times reported.

Crude at $70 allows new technologies to ``gradually'' replace fossil fuels with other energy sources, Khodorkovsky told the newspaper in written remarks delivered by his lawyers. He said governments must help find ways to cut global dependence on fossil fuels because all new energy projects require ``major investment,'' the Times reported.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion, charges he has said were retribution for his political opposition to then- President Vladimir Putin. A regional court denied Khodorkovsky parole last month and his lawyers are appealing the decision.

Oil futures advanced 73 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $103.31 a barrel today in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bradley Cook in Moscow at bcook7@bloomberg.net.