The Springfield News-Leader from Springfield, Missouri • Page 53

Sunday News-Leader ozarksNow January 26, 2003 3E Arctic platform makes producing oil easier and company says, would help preserve Alaska's landscape Drilling could become a year-round industry OIL IN ALASKA Drilling with less impact ssr rssiK. Ntff swim' iv-. rrutx sk iicvi Lcuinuiuyy iu ue lesisu inib spring may make it possible for oil companies to extend drilling season in the Alaskan tundra while having a smaller impact on the local environment. Resting some 12 feet above the tundra, a platform is pieced together on site from pre-made modules supported by piles reaching about 15 feet into the earth. The piles stay solidly fixed all year, stabilized by the underlying permafrost.

Traditional drilling methods dictate construction of costly ice road and platform that protect the tundra but tax local water resources. The new design's lightweight aluminum modules can be transported using helicopter and approved tundra travel vehicles with special tires designed to tread lightly. A temporary ice platform is necessary only during the construction. Soil removed for piles is saved and used to refill the holes after the project, minimizing impact on the land. Arctic Ocean Expanding the territory Beaufort Sea 'A lpl Bay By Brad Foss THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Oil exploration in arctic Alaska has for decades occurred during the coldest months of the year to protect the ecosystem.

Now, a plan to extend the season has environmentalists worried about the impact on wildlife and the likelihood that oil and gas production will spread more quickly to remote areas. The winter-only season for exploratory drilling allows heavy equipment to be shipped back and forth over man-made ice roads that safeguard the underlying tundra. But Anadarko Petroleum Corp. aims to free itself from such restrictions with a new drilling platform whose lightweight components fit together like Lego pieces and can be transported directly across the tundra, saving money and time. Anadarko's arctic platform, which gets its first real test in March, will also make it easier to look for energy in places where ice-road construction is difficult an important technological advance as the company eyes less-developed areas beyond Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, where oil fields are about half as productive as they were 20 years ago.

Environmentalists say the Anadarko plan will increase noise and air pollution, risk greater damage to the ecosystem in the event of a spill and further intrude upon plants and animals, including caribou, grizzly bears and migratory birds. They also fear the industry could use a variation of this technology to stretch the exploratory drilling season in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "It poses some serious questions," said Jenna App, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska, an Anchorage-based nonprofit law firm whose clients include conservation groups and native communities. "If it grabs hold and extends the season, that would be ideal Chukchi Sea (CAN. Currently, drilling in Alaska is centered in the northeastern part of the state's North Slope, with Prudhoe Bay serving as a mecca.

Portable platform technology could provide drilling access to more remote areas to the south and west, while its environmental advantages could convince lawmakers to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 0 ALASKA i 9 0 100 km THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. 1995 British Petroleum's Milne Point Central Facilities Pad on the North Slope of Alaska is shown in 1995. The region's drilling season has been limited for decades to the coldest months so that equipment can be shipped over ice roads without harming the underlying tundra. SOURCE: ANADARKO PETROLEUM DYNATECH R0LLIG0N ESRI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS exploration, oil production is a perennial activity.

If the exploratory well is a dud, though, equipment and crews must be moved out before the ice thaws, forcing the company to wait another year to begin the process all over again. "As soon as it starts getting soupy out there, we've got to take rigs out even if we're not finished," Anadarko's Vincent said. "That's a pretty expensive way to do business." Ice roads, which replaced gravel roads in the 1980s as a re- suit of tougher environmental laws, cost an estimated $100,000 per mile to build. They give companies roughly three months to get in and out before the spring thaw, or just enough time to drill one exploratory well per site. But the industry is finding its window of opportunity increasingly constrained by shorter winters, a trend some environmentalists point to as evidence of global climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

While Anadarko would not discuss the cost of the arctic platform or estimate how much it might reduce expenses, the company said it will enable exploratory drilling to occur nearly year-round, improving the efficiency of operations and creating more jobs. While environmentalists concede that reducing the industrial footprint at abandoned drilling sites is a good thing, they are more worried that the arctic platform concept would help spread industrial activity on Alaska's North Slope now concentrated in the northeast further south and west. for the oil companies and less than ideal for most of the species that use the region for breeding," App said. To be sure, Anadarko's patented design is innovative and does offer some environmentally friendly changes to existing industry practices. For example, the arctic platform doubles as a production unit and stands about 12 feet above the tundra.

That eliminates the need to build permanent production facilities on top of widely used gravel pads, which can leave long-lasting scars on the land and are expensive to clean up. "The less gravel the industry puts on the tundra, the more favorably the state looks on (proposed) projects," said Anne Vincent, manager of communications for Houston-based Anadarko. There are economic incentives as well. Under traditional methods, a permanent gravel pad and production platform are built when an exploratory well is drilled successfully that is, when oil or gas flows as planned. Unlike Hollister up UCTIO V.

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