[thackney]

BP and Exxon wanted the natural gas to go to the midwest because that is their market area. Conoco was already building LNG tankers in anticipation of a Valdez pipeline.

That is BS. ConocoPhillips was the first of the three to annouce agreement with the basic terms of the land pipeline.

The midwest is the target market because it will not compete with the multiple LNG terminals being planned on the West Coast.

[Eva]

You're wrong. Conoco already has the first of the LNG tankers built and operating, but not in Alaska, yet. The Conoco LNG fleet were intended to move gas from Alaska to the west coast, but BP and Exxon seemingly talked them out of it for a while. The article on this subject in the WSJ includes the information that Conoco had reached an agreement with the state officials for the Valdez LNG pipeline.