Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil company, filed a lawsuit against the Alaskan government to retain control of contested oil leases and extract compensatory damages from the state.

Alaska's Department of Natural Resources acted improperly last month when it terminated leases that Irving, Texas-based Exxon has held at the Point Thomson field for 41 years, the company said in a Dec. 27 filing in Alaska Superior Court in Anchorage.

The lawsuit seeks undetermined compensatory damages and an injunction against the state's decision to terminate the leases on the North Slope. Exxon and its partners in the Point Thomson field have spent $800 million since 1977 exploring for oil and natural gas and drilling wells, the filing says.

Exxon and partners BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, ``have suffered and will suffer substantial damages,'' the filing said.

The lease dispute threatens to scuttle plans for a $25 billion pipeline to haul natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to Canadian and U.S. cities. Exxon first began acquiring leases at Point Thomson in 1965 and began drilling the field 12 years later.

Dan Saddler, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, declined to comment today when contacted by telephone. A message left at the office of Richard Todd, an attorney who is representing the department on the lease issue, was not immediately returned.

This week's filing is in addition to Exxon's Dec. 22 appeal in state court that seeks to reverse the termination order issued Nov. 27. That appeal is still pending.

Low Gas Prices

None of the Point Thomson gas wells have been put into production because prices were too low for most of the past 29 years to justify the expense of building a pipeline, the filing said. Since early 2000, prices have tripled as U.S. demand rose faster than production.

In May 2006, the oil companies reached an agreement with then-Governor Frank Murkowski and the state's revenue and natural resources departments that would allow the gas pipeline project to begin.

Lawmakers rejected the deal as too generous to the energy companies. Murkowski left office when his term ended Dec. 4 and his successor, Sarah Palin, has pledged to negotiate a new pipeline agreement. Palin did not return a telephone message left at her office.

----With reporting by Andrew Harris in Chicago. Editor: Saponar

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Carroll in Chicago at jcarroll8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 29, 2006 17:52 EST