Conoco Said to Bet on U.A.E. Alliance in Caspian Oil Race

* username: rupertbu

ConocoPhillips plans to team with Abu Dhabi-backed Mubadala Development Co. to bid for oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea off Turkmenistan after an attempt with Russia’s OAO Lukoil foundered, a person familiar with the strategy said.

ConocoPhillips, the third-biggest U.S. oil producer, has worked with Mubadala in the Turkmen part of the sea for the past six months after Lukoil’s attempt to gain Block 21 failed in September, said the person, who declined to be identified during the bidding process.

The Houston-based company and Mubadala won access to Block N in Kazakhstan’s sector of the Caspian in 2008 and plan to drill an exploration well in the third quarter. ConocoPhillips may find a partnership with an Arab oil producer to be a preferable route to Caspian resources than with Lukoil, Russia’s largest non-state oil company, Julia Nanay, an oil analyst at PFC Energy, said by e-mail.