A proposed 2,100-mi gas pipeline from Alaska to U.S. markets is not likely to be in service until the end of this decade, said Dick Olver, head of upstream operations for BP Plc.

Olver, quoted in a Reuters report, emphasized that cost regulatory hurdles must be reduced if the project is to materialize.

Producers BP, Phillips Petroleum Co. and ExxonMobil have been studying a U.S. $15 to $17 billion plan to ship their gas from Prudhoe Bay along the Alaska Highway into Yukon and then Alberta.

Meanwhile, a competing project that would deliver gas from the Northwest Territories' Mackenzie Delta could be in service by 2007 or 2008.

In January, Imperial Oil Ltd., Shell Canada Ltd., Conoco Inc. and ExxonMobil started work on applications for the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. The $2.5 billion proposal envisions a pipeline connecting gas reserves in the Northwest Territories' Mackenzie Delta region with existing systems in northern Alberta.