Gazprom, ConocoPhillips Discuss Alaska Opportunities

By Tony Hopfinger and Stephen Bierman

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Alexei Miller, chief executive officer of OAO Gazprom, Russia's natural-gas exporter, met with Alaskan and ConocoPhillips officials to discuss business opportunities in the most northerly U.S. state.

Miller and other Gazprom executives expressed ``general interest'' in working in Alaska, Marty Rutherford, deputy commissioner of the state's Department of Natural Resources, said by phone in Anchorage today.

Miller said in June at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum that Gazprom approached ConocoPhillips and BP Plc on joining their Denali pipeline project, aimed at delivering Alaskan natural gas to the continental U.S. Gazprom at the same time expressed interest in a rival project backed by TransCanada Corp., to transport Alaskan natural gas to Alberta.


The Gazprom executives also met with ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips spokesman Charlie Rowton said by e-mail. ``The focus of today's conversation was not Denali, the Alaska Gas Pipeline, but other broad-based business opportunities,'' Rowton said.

Gazprom did not specifically discuss pipeline projects during the meeting with Alaskan officials, Rutherford said. ``They were talking very generically. They would love to partner with us and other firms, and they have a lot of advanced scientific technology,'' Rutherford said.

BP Alaska spokesman Steve Rinehart said he would ``neither confirm nor deny'' if his company is meeting with Gazprom's delegation in Alaska.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow sbierman1@bloomberg.net. Tony Hopfinger in Anchorage via London newsroom on 7521 or guycollins@bloomberg.net