I believe Exxon bought XTO Energy, the largest natural gas producer in the states, and started these mentioned Mideast natural gas "projects" that compete with Alaska, because those 'sovereigns" wouldn`t have let Exxon sit on 2.7 bcf a day of surplus gas, and hold that off the market..and away from even Alaskans using our own SURPUS gas for Alaskans. 
They agreed to get on board PALIN`s gasline effort reluctantly, not Parnell`s,..knowing all the while the largest future LNG import market for Alaska`s gas was China, Japan the Pacific and Southeast Asia.. the least developed but fastest growing users of gas. Read this again.. warehousing Alaska surplus gas in deference to foreign sovereigns like Qatar (largest gas reserves in the world) is nothing new;  http://www.adn.com/nation-world/2016/09/02/exxon-ignores-near-term-glut-to-play-liquefied-gas-long-game/   

For you to claim Exxon was ignorant of fracking is a joke. They were doing it in the forties.  High oil prices just refined it.