"I would not extrapolate that problem anywhere else. That's peculiar to BP and peculiar to this type of low- pressure line." The Alaska incident underscores the danger posed by corrosion to the US' energy infrastructure at a time when global oil supply is tight. "There's a lot of discussion going on ….. in the industry about corrosion," said Dave Pursell, a Houston-based analyst with Pickering Energy Partners. Besides Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field, which accounts for 8% of US production, the two other main producing areas are the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and Texas. Pipelines in these areas are to a certain extent less prone to corrosion and the corresponding production outages that damage can cause. Texas produces about 1.1m brl/d of oil, mostly in the western part of the state, which has some of the oldest pipelines in service. "There's lots of potential for corrosion in West Texas," Pursell said. However, unlike in Alasaka, production well distributed. "We have no single pipeline upon which we are so dependent," Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Elizabeth Ames Jones is reported to have said. "I'm confident that Texas crude oil lines, on the whole, are sound," she continued. Companies in Texas also have more alternatives to transport the oil out of the field, because the environment is less fragile than Alaska's. For instance, there's no sensitive tundra to worry about, said Allegro Energy consultant Cheryl Trench, a New York-based pipeline expert. "If you had a problem in West Texas, it wouldn't be unusual to use trucks," Trench said. The deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for one-quarter of the hydrocarbon production in the Lower 48 states, is far more vulnerable to hurricanes and accidents than corrosion, as the pipelines there are newer. However, Gulf of Mexico lines are also tightly regulated, Admiral Barrett said. Major pipeline operators say they believe the corrosion situation is under control, as stringent regulations established in 2000 force them to run intelligent (or 'smart') pigs at least every five years, as well as to use other tests to periodically look for internal corrosion. The new regulations apply to most pipelines, and incidents have been reduced by 50% between 1999 and 2004, Cheryl Trench points out. However, low-pressure transit lines, like BP's Prudhoe Bay system, are exempt because they're less likely to release as much product. Some operators treat these pipelines as if they were regulated, but others don't, she continues. Nevertheless, she went on, "I know quite a few operators who treat every single piece of pipe they operate exactly the same." PHMSA is trying to bring low-stress lines affecting environmentally-sensitive or highly-populated areas "under increased scrutiny," Admiral Barrett said. The rule-making process started about 18 months ago, and finalized regulation may see the light by the end of this year, or early in 2007.