Posted on 12/22/2005 1:33:10 PM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
JUNEAU, Alaska - An antitrust lawsuit filed against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs. The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, says the two companies acted together to eliminate competition for the exploration, development and marketing of natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to U.S. markets. "The only reason for them to collusively not to sell is to try to continue the scarcity that has driven natural gas prices to historic highs," said David Boies, the attorney for the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, which filed the lawsuit. BP and Exxon Mobil are two of Alaska's biggest oil and gas leaseholders, and are the operators for the North Slope's largest oil and gas fields, Prudhoe Bay and Point Thomson. Alaska's North Slope is estimated to have at least 35 trillion cubic feet (1 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas reserves, which could supply 7 percent to 10 percent of the nation's natural gas, Boies said. The January future contract for natural gas rose 41 cents Monday to settle at $14.04 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gas contracts have reached record levels near $16 per 1,000 cubic feet in recent months. "I don't think anybody can tell you exactly how much the prices would decline, but it's clear it would decline substantially," Boies said. The federal lawsuit arose from the producers' refusal to sell supplies of natural gas to the port authority, which wants to build a pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez.
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Who must lose? The Port Authority or BP, Exxon & Mobile?
Port Authority also has a non-viable proposal according to BP and Exxon. The contract still in negotiation, negotiations suspended until January, is the BP Exxon Conoco proposal. The Gov is offering $2 billion of state money immediately with more possible in the years to come, which is a 10% stake in the project, which is an excellent investment for the state.
Why is it nonviable in their opinion?
The third proposal, Calpine, has already gone down in flames. The Port Authority proposal is non-viable because it is not competitive with the Alaska Highway route due to adding the extra steps of liquifying and putting the product on tankers only to offload and put in the Canada pipeline anyway. Besides, Port Authority lacks the financial depth of pocket to construct the project.
I can see that -- most public entities do not have enough funds to properly invest in anything. However, that doesn't seem to stop them from trying, does it?
Port Authority is a quasi-public corporation created under but not by the State, and not by state-level deartments. The State itself as represented by the Gov is doing something else.
Boies beat Microsoft when he was in the Attorney General's office, but other than that his carrer has been marked by high profile losses. He's just intelligent enough to pick losers with fat pocketbooks.
In case anyone else missed the association, this guy was Al Gore's lawyer in the 2000 race, and the guy who argued that the votes should be recounted until Gore won. He also represented Fastow from Enron fame, tried to defend Napster as a legitimate business, and works for SCO in their ill-fated attempts to sue Linux out of existence. This guy has a penchant for choosing the losing side (even his win agains MS was mostly overturned on appeal).
So this why Propane prices have doubled since 2002. Just paid $1.71/ gallon for 200 gallons that probably won't last two months.
Crooks, all of them.
They made billions off of that and probable manipulation of recent gas prices and need to give billions back
Can we wait to give them a trial before we hang them?
You would not want me to have my way with those who defraud. Trust me, you wouldn't. Hugo Chavez is just a little kid.
Gov. Frank Murkowski has halted negotiations with the port authority and is focused solely on closing a deal with the three oil companies for their $20 billion (euro16.7 billion) pipeline proposal. Murkowski spokeswoman Becky Hultberg said the governor's office has not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
It is interesting that the Natural Gas Pipeline gets little notice until one of the losers files suit. There has been a lot of activity up to now, and Port Authority is a latecomer and on the way out.
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