BP Amoco May Divert Alaska Crude to Calif.

BP Amoco will halt exporting Alaska crude oil and divert the 60,000 barrels a day to California if it gets approval for its merger with Atlantic Richfield Co., the Britain-based oil company said Thursday.

The company made its intentions known in a letter to Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), chairman of the House Resources Committee, who pushed legislation five years ago that allows Alaska oil to be exported.

The BP Amoco decision was hailed by Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) as “the right thing to do” and a “welcomed announcement” at a time when oil shortages are causing gasoline prices to soar, especially on the West Coast.

But PB Amoco spokesman Tom Koch emphasized that the decision to end exports after the current export contract expires is contingent on government approval of the BP-Amoco purchase of Los Angeles-based Arco.

The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing a revised proposal that would have Arco sell all its Alaska petroleum holdings to Phillips Petroleum Co. as a condition for the merger with BP Amoco.

It’s not known when the FTC will make a decision, although it’s now widely anticipated that the merger will go through.

Separately, BP Amoco said it will form a joint venture with PetroChina Co. to market natural gas in eastern China and has agreed to buy 20% of the shares in PetroChina’s initial public offering of stock, up to a maximum of $1 billion.

PetroChina is a unit of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., China’s largest oil and gas company.