US: BP and ConocoPhillips in Alaska pipeline deal

SUPERMAJORS BP and ConocoPhillips have joined forces to build Denali, the Alaska gas pipeline that they say will be the largest private-sector construction project built in North America. The new line will pipe 4bn cubic feet a day of gas to markets in the lower 48 states and should extend the life of BP's North Slope gasfields for another 50 years, according to firm's chief executive, Tony Hayward. The companies will spend $0.6bn on the pipeline's first phase. That will involve construction of a gas-treatment plant on Alaska's North Slope and a large-diameter pipeline stretching 700 miles across Alaska, Canada's Yukon Territory and the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. "Should it b