Gas Pipeline Who's Who

Here are the players involved in constructing and selling Alaska's Natural Gas by building a natural gas pipeline.

ALASKA GASLINE PORT AUTHORITY

• Who: An agency led by Valdez and the Fairbanks North Star Borough that wants a pipeline built from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, where natural gas would be chilled into a liquid for export to the West Coast.

• What: The authority is using money from partner Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based natural gas distributor and power company, to run an ad campaign that says its plan is the best pipeline project for Alaska, with more jobs and more public revenue.

• Status: Has submitted proposal to North Slope producers to buy their natural gas production. Is one of three entities negotiating with the Murkowski administration over how the state would tax its project. Says it could finish its project by 2012.

• What critics say: This project is an impossible dream. It would need an act of Congress to get affordable tankers. It would glut the West Coast with gas. The authority could not borrow 100 percent of the money to build the project as it claims. The authority's tax-exempt status is a fiction.

CONOCO PHILLIPS, BP, EXXON

• Who: North Slope's largest natural gas producers. Currently inject gas produced with oil back underground.

• What: They say Alaska would more value if the natural gas were piped through Canada into the Lower 48.

• Status: Is one of three entities, with the Gasline Port Authority and TransCanada, a pipeline company, negotiating with the Murkowski administration over how the state would tax its project.

• What critics say: Their pipeline would take longer to build, would create fewer Alaska construction jobs and would not guarantee in-state supplies of gas.