Gov. Bill Walker is holding meetings with North Slope producers, jawboning them about selling natural gas for the state-led Alaska LNG Project. So far meetings have been held with BP and ConocoPhillips and a meeting with ExxonMobil has either just been held or is planned soon. BP con rmed its meeting but the governor’s office would not comment.

The governor’s idea, as sources explained to us, is for the companies to sell gas to the state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp. and for AGDC to then sell the gas to buyers in Asia. We’re told the governor is anxious to have deals wrapped up by March so AGDC can present them to Sinopec, the Chinese energy company. Sinopec is negotiating with AGDC to purchase 75 percent of capacity in Alaska LNG, or 15 million tons a year of LNG. Walker’s goal is to have the deal with Sinopec wrapped up by year-end.

The notion of AGDC purchasing gas will not go over well with legislators, who worry about financial liabilities this could create for the state. But if this came together it would have to have repurchase commitments really nailed down. People will still be nervous.

The goal of having sales agreements by March may be ambitious, too. These are huge deals. It’s also still an open question whether producers will really accept $1 per million British Thermal Units for their gas, the price AGDC has discussed in presentations.