BP and ConocoPhillips Team Up on Alaskan Pipeline

Supermajors BP and ConocoPhillips have joined forces to build an Alaskan gas pipeline to move about four billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to US markets, billed as the largest private construction project to be built in North America.

The project will consist of a gas treatment plant on Alaska's North Slope and a large-diameter 700 mile pipeline that will run from Canada through the Yukon Territory and British Columbia to Alberta, says ConocoPhillips.

"This project is vital for North American energy consumers and for the future of the Alaska oil and gas industry," says BP Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward.

"It will allow us to keep our North Slope fields in production for another 50 years."

The two companies plan to spend US$600m to take the project to open season by the end of 2010, where companies will be sought to be involved in construction.

Both companies have assigned staff to the joint project team and will build a new headquarters in Anchorage to manage the project.

By Ozge Ibrahim