TransCanada Corp. is best positioned to build the Alaska Highway pipeline if the project goes ahead, the company's chief executive officer emphasized in Whitehorse last week.

Hal Kvisle told delegates attending the Opportunities North 2005 conference that TransCanada is the largest transporter of natural gas in North American, and second in the world. It also has extensive experience in pipeline construction, he told his audience.

TransCanada and its wholly-owned subsidiary Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd. can deliver the project on time and on budget, he assured the audience.

With the massive scope of the proposal, Kvisle said, the marketplace and the economy should have the assurance that what would be one of the largest industrial undertakings in the world is in competent hands.

And with North America's insatiable and escalating demand for energy, there is no doubt natural gas will become more and more the product used to generate electricity, he said.

'This is a very significant project, and that is the business we are in, and that is what we do.'

Foothills, he noted, already has the exclusive right under the Northern Pipeline Act to build the pipeline. It has also spent hundreds of millions of dollars expanding its infrastructure in southern Canada and the United States with an aim of some day accommodating natural gas from the North.

The existing infrastructure has the required capacity. Moving Prudhoe Bay, Alaska gas and other gas from other fields along the way would benefit TransCanada and its customers, Kvisle said.

'So TransCanada has a lot at stake in this game,' Kvisle said during his 45-minute presentation. 'We have worked very hard at it, and we intend to persevere.'

Others, including the big three Alaska producers, have expressed doubt about TransCanada's exclusive right to build the Alaska Highway pipeline in Canada and parts of the state.

They've also suggested they may want to build their own pipeline, though the federal government has yet to announce whether the pipeline would be permitted under Canada's existing Northern Pipeline Act. The act provides construction and ownership rights to Foothills.

The producers are currently in negotiations with the State of Alaska surrounding the proposal to move North Slope gas to the south, and word out of Alaska as recently as Wednesday was that those negotiations are very close to conclusion.

There is also a push in Alaska to maximize benefits to the state by piping the Prudhoe Bay gas to Valdez, Alaska, liquifying it and exporting it by ocean tanker, a common practice around the world.

Kvisle said TransCanada is adamant it has the exclusive rights to the Canadian portion. However, he has talked with the producers about an arrangement to have them participate in the Alaska portion of the pipeline.

At current demand, he explained, the marketplace needs to find three billion cubic feet per day of new gas every year.

And just as the continent began relying more on crude oil imports 20 years ago, there will be a growing reliance on the import of liquified natural gas without new North American gas coming on line, he said.

Prudhoe Bay gas, Kvisle insisted, is essential to the North American economy.

Hooking up Alaska's North Slope to the south would be a huge benefit to the state, the Yukon and all of western Canada, not to mention a $28.5-billion jolt for Canada's gross domestic product, he said.

Kvisle pointed out labour requirements for the Yukon alone in the preconstruction stage would fall somewhere between 545 and 775 workers, from equipment operators to labourers and supervisory staff.

During construction, labour requirements would peak at somewhere between 2,400 and 3,350 people.

TransCanada, Kvisle said, does not see construction beginning for another five years. Money, however, would begin flowing in the preconstruction stage three and four years from now.

The availability of steel looms as a constraint, he said. So does the ability to secure the necessary workforce, particularly with mammoth industrial centres like Fort McMurray, Alta. paying big bucks for skilled labour.

'The big risk is just the sheer magnitude of this project,' Kvisle told delegates.

In a speech Sept. 19 to the American Gas Association, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski said the time is now for the United States to prepare itself for the rising energy demands.

'We cannot wait until we are confronted with a sudden emergency and then decide to remove the current obstacles to domestic exploration, production, transportation and refining,' Murkowski said.

'In Alaska, building a gas pipeline, opening ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and encouraging new exploration and development of our natural resources pave the way to meeting our nation's energy needs.'