The company that owns the rights to most of the North Slope gas to fill a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska failed to join a letter to the governor from other big producers offering to help advance a state-led gas line project.
But ExxonMobil said it's still willing, as it has been, to sell gas to Alaska — at the right price.
The top officials in Alaska for BP and ConocoPhillips signed the letter to the governor on Monday, saying the companies are committed to working with the state to make the project more competitive by lowering costs.
Janet Weiss, with BP, and Joe Marushack, with ConocoPhillips, said the companies are preparing plans to turn over regulatory and commercial work to the state gas line corporation representing the state in the $55 billion Alaska LNG project.
The plans will include milestones to transfer the companies' interest in the Alaska LNG project to the state, they said. One of the assets to be transferred to the state is more than 500 acres of land owned by the oil companies near Nikiski where a plant could be built to liquefy North Slope natural gas after it's shipped down a pipeline.
The letter arrived during a period of uncertainty for the project, with the oil companies expected to reduce their roles in it, and the state planning to take over from ExxonMobil as lead partner. The change to a state-led project has come under fire by political critics who have been hammering the Walker administration for pursuing the costly project.
Gov. Bill Walker's office announced on Thursday he received the emailed letter from the two oil giants in Singapore, where he spoke at a conference to promote Slope natural gas to potential buyers. In the announcement, the governor touted the support of the two companies, saying their assurances of providing natural gas allows a state-led project move forward.
The partners have spent more than $500 million studying the project, which won't be built until 2023, if ever. ExxonMobil owns about one-third of the gas on the Slope that would feed a pipeline, with BP, ConocoPhillips and the state — through its royalty share — owning the rest.
An official with ExxonMobil would not comment on why it did not sign onto the letter.
In another development this week, ConocoPhillips and the state announced they had signed an agreement to discuss forming a joint venture to market North Slope gas to utilities around the world.
Asked if ExxonMobil would be part of a joint-venture marketing company, Aaron Stryk, ExxonMobil's upstream media relations advisor, said the company does not comment on details of its commercial arrangements.
Company officials have previously said ExxonMobil will support a state-led gas line project in part by making investments to provide natural gas to the project from the Point Thomson and Prudhoe Bay fields.
But before ExxonMobil will commit to those investments, the company has said it will need gas sales and purchase agreements in place from a reliable buyer at commercially reasonable prices.
[Related: Oil producers balk following new study calling Alaska's LNG project uneconomic]