Current law prohibits petroleum and gas development in ANWR. Improved exploration and development technologies that have become more widely available include advanced seismic data analysis, ice-based technology, slim hole and high performance drilling techniques, and methods to reduce waste. Such innovation also is a factor in addressing the economic obstacles to finding and developing hydrocarbons. Potential Issues

While it can be reasonably argued that advanced arctic petroleum technologies substantially mitigate the environmental impact of oil and gas operations compared with how North Slope Alaska oil was developed originally, it also is contended that the use of natural resources such as gravel and water, the probability of spills, and the loss of wilderness as a result of human intrusion are issues that technology advances cannot address. History of North Slope Petroleum Activities

The North Slope is home to the two largest developed oil fields in North America; and it has the largest oil field discovered in the United States in the last decade. Project goals were to reduce costs and to reduce the environmental impact of industry activities. The amplitudes generated from a given fluid will have different strengths and can be used as hydrocarbon indicators (HI). Types of directional wells are extended reach, horizontal, and designer or complex wells. They are designed to reach small targets, several small oil accumulations at one time, or to go around geological barriers. Zero Discharge of Solid and Fluid Wastes

The major drilling wastes are drilling mud, water produced along with the oil, and drill cuttings. These benefits allow access to areas not open to conventional rigs and decrease the number of surface drilling sites. Multilateral wells and coiled tubing wells drilled as slim hole wells require less mud and produce less waste. Observations

		Gains from North Slope Experience

Thirty years of development experience on the North Slope have led to considerable advances in exploration, drilling, and production operations, and a reduction in the size of the footprint of petroleum operations in Arctic environments. The use of 3-D seismic technology during the exploration for hydrocarbon fields and the production stages of fields on the North Slope enables geologists and geophysicists to be more proficient in interpreting seismic data and in identifying the type of hydrocarbon. Conclusions

There are supportable grounds for proponents of opening ANWR to energy development to assert that the advanced technologies for oil and gas development in the Arctic might significantly mitigate the effects on the environment of oil and gas operations. But opponents assert that, notwithstanding technological improvements, facilities of any size would be an industrial site and an intrusion on the ecosystem that would use the area's natural resources, interfere with wildlife, risk spills of hazardous materials, and result in a permanent loss of wilderness.
Congressional debate over opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) on a portion of the North Slope of Alaska to petroleum exploration and development is under way in the 109th Congress. Current law prohibits such development in ANWR.
The North Slope is home to the two largest oil fields in North America and to the largest U.S. oil field discovered in the last decade. The North Slope also is home to a diverse, unique, and fragile ecosystem – resulting in extensive federal, state, and local regulatory protection. Partly due to increased restrictions since the discovery of Prudhoe Bay, operators have developed less environmentally intrusive ways to recover arctic oil, primarily through innovations in several types of technology.
Seismic technology offers the exploration sector advanced analytical methods that generate high resolution images of geologic structures and that help identify oil and gas accumulations by looking for anomalies or hydrocarbon indicators in the seismic data. Ice-based technology has been improved so as to better serve remote areas during exploratory drilling and production. Computers now allow the manipulation and interpretation of vast amounts of data, offering more precise well locations, thereby reducing the number of wells needed to find hydrocarbon accumulations.
Recent advances in drilling can reduce the footprint of petroleum operations in arctic environments. New drilling bit designs, fluid formulas, and advanced forms of drilling, such as extended reach, horizontal, and designer wells, permit drilling to reach as far as five miles from a wellhead location and to drill around geological barriers to find and develop hydrocarbon accumulations. Advances in drilling allow less space for a drilling rig, and reduce volumes and weights of both equipment and drilling waste.
Production facilities are now more compact, with modules performing many functions. A project goal of operators on the North Slope is zero discharge of solid and fluid wastes. Production drilling techniques using slim hole technology, such as coiled tubing and multilateral drilling, can contribute to smaller footprints, less waste, and better recovery of hydrocarbons from each well.
Proponents of opening ANWR to energy development maintain that these technologies substantially mitigate the effects on the environment of oil and gas operations, and assert that the increase in domestically-produced energy would be worth any minimal environmental impacts. Opponents counter that a facility of any size would still be an industrial site and an intrusion on the ecosystem, and argue that the need for gravel and scarce water, the permanent roads, ports, and airstrips that would follow, and the unknown number of spills would destroy vegetation, contaminate water resources, and interfere with wildlife.