Alyeska spokesman Mike Heatwole told PNA today that the company's lease on its current facility expires next year and that earlier this year the company started looking at options for its Anchorage corporate staff.

The company looked at several properties, he said, and the available space in the BP building made the most economic sense.

The lease is now being negotiated and Alyeska is looking at a time schedule for moving, Heatwole said.

BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. spokesman Paul Laird t old PNA that the company has been consolidating its space within the building since Steve Marshall, president of BP Exploration (Alaska) told the Alaska Support Industry Alliance's Meet Alaska in January that along with cutting costs, the company would also be subletting office space.

Laird said the terms with Alyeska were not finalized, but that the space involved was floors two and eight through 10, about 71,000 square feet, one-quarter of BP's rentable space.