Offshore oil production could help refill the pipeline just when the flow from the North Slope is projected to reach critical lows.

WSJ: Drilling Rules Hit Alaska Pipeline

The largest pipeline in the area, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, runs alongside the road and handles roughly 12% of U.S. oil imports.

FORBES: Gustav Rides Louisana's Energy Highway

Oil and Gas UK - the offshore industry body - said oil transported through the Brent pipeline system represented 10% of the UK's North Sea oil production.

BBC: Cormorant Alpha

In the past, many observers thought a pipeline between Baku and Supsa in Georgia could provide the optimal route for exports from offshore Azerbaijan.

ECONOMIST: No apology necessary

But Alaska politicians, industry consultants and analysts question whether tight new regulations in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf might discourage offshore drilling in the Arctic, removing that as a way to postpone the Trans-Alaska Pipeline's decline.

WSJ: Drilling Rules Hit Alaska Pipeline