Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU -- Gov. Sarah Palin has met with executives from Conoco Phillips to discuss a prospective natural gas pipeline -- one month after turning down the company's proposal.

She stressed the state was not negotiating any long-range fiscal plans -- tax rates and length of the terms -- which the company has sought as part of a gas pipeline deal.

The meeting took place Sunday afternoon in Anchorage and included members of her gas line team. It lasted about four hours, Palin said.

Last month, Palin rejected Conoco Phillips' gas line proposal, but she has pledged to keep meeting with company officials.

Palin said Sunday's meeting was simply to review concerns the company had with the state's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, or AGIA.

"It's to fulfill our commitment to not dismiss anybody's ideas and proposals on how to monetize Alaska's gas resources," Palin said.

A Conoco Phillips spokeswoman said Monday the company would not immediately comment.

The company submitted a proposal last November that was outside the guidelines established by AGIA.

Rather, Conoco Phillips has asked the state to first deal with a fiscal framework needed to ensure commitments of shipping gas in a pipeline.

Conoco Phillips is the state's largest producer of oil and shares in the leases for nearly 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves in the North Slope.

Last month, independent pipeline company TransCanada emerged as the only application deemed compliant so far.

The Calgary-based company proposes shipping gas from the North Slope 1,715 miles southeast into a Canadian pipeline system, ultimately sending it to the Midwest. A public comment period ends March 6.

But Conoco Phillips has launched a public campaign to keep its position at the forefront.

Next week U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens will be paying the Legislature a visit and is expected to discuss the gas line during his annual address.

He and other members of the state's congressional delegation have long stressed the urgency of moving forward with the project.

Palin said she understands the urgency. She cited a faded 1958 newspaper display ad calling for the need to produce North Slope gas, nearly 20 years before oil began flowing from the North Slope.

"Yes, there needs to be expediency today to get our gas into hungry markets," Palin said on Monday. "But we are not going to be in a panic and change rules, and negotiate secretly or do anything that is outside the public's purview, to rush through a deal that isn't in Alaska's best interest."

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