Unless the oil is kept flowing, it will freeze in the Alaskan winter. We know right now that if the power is shut off for more than an hour, in the middle of winter, the oil will freeze solid because it will be too damn cold. The power plants along the pipeline may not be able to operate because of Y2K, creating another danger. If the pipe freezes it could burst. To avoid a dangerous situation in the winter, the pipeline may be shut down before the Year 2000 even begins.
Oil refineries are another problem.
The National Guard has information which indicates that few of the refineries will be able to operate in the Year 2000, and they too will need to shut down early to avoid a dangerous situation. You'll get pipes bursting at these plants. It's cheaper to build a new refinery than it is to pull all the imbedded chips out of the old one. Much of the Y2K problem deals with computer chips that are permanently programmed incorrectly. The chips will not function correctly when the year 2000 arrives.