When I heard the Idiot in Chief make the 50 permanent jobs comment. The first thing I did was search on “Alaska Pipeline Employment”. ARSCenergy alone employs 3,000 for that.
Most of those people are not working on the Pipeline. The majority are on the North Slope production fields and in Anchorage.
The total Alyeska (company running the pipeline) employees ~800 people direct and ~1,000 contractors including those from ARSC. I and a few of my past employees have been one of those contractors.
Good thought about the comparison. Alaska is a harsher environment and the above ground portions (most of it) takes more maintenance than a buried pipe. Still it gives a reasonable basis.