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ANCHORAGE - A study of risks posed by Alaska's aging oil and gas infrastructure will begin this fall.

The study, authorized by the Alaska Legislature, involves a lengthy review and ranking of oil and gas-related risk along the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline, the Valdez tanker port, and North Slope and Cook Inlet fields. The study will not be finished until early 2010.

The study was an outgrowth of spills, leaks and corrosion discovered on the North Slope in recent years. The legislature approved $5 million for the study.

"Some of the things they should have done already," said Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks, who has worked construction jobs on the North Slope.

Accidents on the Slope keep happening, he said, noting a high-pressure natural gas pipeline at Prudhoe Bay that blew up last week. The incident sent a pipe segment onto tundra and led to a shutdown at two oil production pads.

Leaks from two corroded oil pipes in 2006 caused half of Prudhoe Bay to shut down for weeks, temporarily slowing oil revenue to the state.

Prudhoe Bay oil field operator BP is replacing 16 miles worth of corroded pipe at a cost of $260 million.

Prudhoe Bay, the North Slope's oldest field, was built more than 30 years ago.

"No one has really taken a comprehensive look at the whole system before," said Ira Rosen, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation manager running the project.

The study group includes two consulting firms, Doyon Emerald of Anchorage and Houston-based ABS Consulting. The group will look at paperwork and it's unclear how much time it will spend in the field inspecting oil and gas equipment, Rosen said.

BP has a long history of cooperating with state agencies, said spokesman Steve Rinehart, but its participation in the study has not been determined.

"They haven't actually said what it is they'd like us to do yet," he said.

The scope of the study also has not been determined. The state this month is hosting public meetings to hear what Alaskans say the study should focus on.

A recent meeting in Fairbanks drew more regulators and contractors than members of the public, according to people who attended it. Some who attended came away with differing opinions on whether the study was on the right track.

Richard Fineberg, a longtime oil industry watchdog, said he is worried that the state's team will not spend enough time in the field or get access to important facts.

"It runs the risk of being a highly bureaucratized thing," he said.

An environmentalist who went to the meeting, Gabe Scott of Cordova, said the study should take a hard look at oil-field management and cost-cutting. He also says the study team should weigh the benefits of creating a citizen group to monitor the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

Citizen groups backed financially by the oil industry monitor tankers in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, but do not monitor activity on the North Slope or in communities along the pipeline route, he said.

The public meeting for comment in Anchorage area is scheduled for Oct. 15.