BP, Exxon Mobil hit with antitrust suit
Alaska claims they're withholding natural gas from market
By MarketWatch
Last Update: 1:36 AM ET Dec. 20, 2005
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A dispute over the best way to move Alaska North Slope natural gas to the U.S. market has resulted in an antitrust suit claiming BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. are conspiring to withhold the fuel to drive up prices, according to a media report Tuesday.
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The U.K.'s BP (BP:
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BP65.28, -0.44, -0.7%) (UK:BP: news, chart, profile) and U.S. giant Exxon Mobil (XOM:
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XOM57.70, -0.36, -0.6%) , the world's largest publicly traded oil companies, denied the allegations, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition. See Wall Street Journal story (subscription required).

The action comes as natural-gas prices have flirted with historic highs on fears of inadequate supplies for a cold U.S. winter. Natural-gas futures closed at a three-session high on Monday. See full story.

The suit against BP and Exxon Mobil was filed Monday in U.S. District in Fairbanks, Alaska, by the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, the state agency charged with building a pipeline to move an estimated 37 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - enough to satisfy two year's worth of U.S. demand - from the North Slope fields to U.S. markets, The Journal said.

The authority alleges in its suit that a series of illegal agreements and acquisitions by the companies has choked the flow of gas reserves and seeks a court order to top the companies' alleged collusion, The Journal said.

The authority said that BP's refusal to agree to ship its natural gas and Exxon Mobil's failure to develop its huge fields amounts to "warehousing" a desperately needed resource in an effort to drive up prices. "Gas prices are at record highs, and big oil companies still won't move the gas to market," authority Chairman Jim Whitaker said in a statement, according to The Journal.

Gas now produced by North Slope oil wells is injected into underground reservoirs, The Journal said.

The port authority says it has $18 billion in federal guarantees and the permits to build a pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez in the southern part of the state, where gas would be liquefied and loaded onto tankers, The Journal said. The Trans Alaska Pipeline moves crude from the North Slope to tankers that load at Valdez.

But BP and Exxon favor an alternative, longer pipeline through Canada over which they would have more control, the authority charges in its suit.

Talks between the state and producers on building the longer pipeline have stalled, The Journal said.

BP and Exxon Mobil have balked at the state's terms and a third producer, ConocoPhillips, (COP:
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COP58.60, +1.25, +2.2%) agreed to basic terms in October, The Journal said.

BP and Exxon Mobil argue a pipeline through Canada to the Midwest would increase the value of the gas by delivering it directly to gas-hungry markets, while the Valdez route would generate less revenue and expose the $20 billion project to greater risk, The Journal said.

"This is another sobering reminder of our litigation-crazed society. This suit is frivolous and it's totally without merit," said Exxon spokesman Russ Roberts, according to The Journal.