Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Former Gov. Frank Murkowski said Wednesday media reports of his involvement in the process to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope have been exaggerated.

An Anchorage television station spotted Murkowski leaving a meeting with ConocoPhillips executives Monday. Other media outlets speculated that, after being out of the public eye for a year, Murkowski was working to advance ConocoPhillips’ bid for the pipeline. The company submitted a proposal outside Gov. Sarah Palin’s Alaska Gasline Inducement Act.

“They sensationalized things a little bit,” Murkowski said at a meeting with News-Miner editors. He said he is not being paid by any company to advance the pipeline project.

While still in office in 2006, Murkowski met privately with executives of ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and BP to reach an agreement for a natural gas pipeline. The plan fell through in large part because of criticism that it gave the companies too many tax breaks.

Murkowski, who Palin defeated in the 2006 Republican primary, said that deal had to be negotiated behind closed doors.

“You can’t negotiate in a public auditorium,” he said.

AGIA culminated in only one bid, from TransCanada, being judged as meeting all of its criteria.

Though Murkowski said he is not officially part of any pipeline discussions, he did offer some views on the process, noting that AGIA seemed to anticipate more than one acceptable proposal but it would be difficult for the pipeline to go forward with just one company on board.

He was asked if AGIA could lead to a pipeline. “Not without a source of gas,” he said.

And while he said he hasn’t spoken to Palin in more than a year, he said he would be happy, if asked, to help it move forward.

“The state needs this thing, and you can’t let it get away,” he said.

Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at 459-7545.