Anchorage Daily News

Oil giant Conoco Phillips said it is re-evaluating its proposal to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope due to what it calls a lack of engagement from Gov. Sarah Palin's administration, company officials said Wednesday.

"We're re-evaluating the best path forward," Brian Wenzel, vice president of Alaska North Slope gas development for Conoco Phillips Alaska, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "The re-evaluation will include essentially everything we've proposed to date with the administration."

Wenzel and Conoco Alaska President Jim Bowles told the News-Miner the company made the decision after Palin's administration refused to consider its proposal.

The company submitted a proposal outside the competitive bidding process set up the by the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. The act, known as AGIA, does not prohibit a company from pursuing a gas pipeline project on its own.

Conoco Phillips Chief Executive Jim Mulva said the company "remains dedicated to developing Alaska's North Slope gas resources."

Bowles said the company will spend up to $40 million this summer on initial project work.

"We're moving out on the project ourselves in that type of fashion," he said.

Palin's administration is accepting public comments on the one application it deemed complete under AGIA, submitted by pipeline company TransCanada.

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