The Alaska state government is mulling the taking of a stake in a large natural gas pipeline and gas liquefaction project to meet the concerns of North Slope producers BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil and of pipeline developer TransCanada, Alaska’s natural resources commissioner said Monday. “It could solve a lot of problems for us and the project sponsors,” the commissioner, Joe Balash, said in an interview. With an estimated cost of $45 billion-$65 billion, the project is a major recommendation of a Black & Veatch study of North Slope royalty issues released Monday. “Direct state equity participation in the [gas] project can provide key benefits to the state including alignment of interests [among the parties], transparency through the midstream portion of the supply chain, facilitation of third-party access to the midstream and potentially improved state cash flows along with improved producer economics,” the consultants said […]