Now a hearing on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National wildlife refuge and the potential benefits and environmental impact. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Heard testimony from environmental experts, biologists and representatives from the alaska regional corporations. This is 90 minutes. Welcome back, everyone. Sorry for the extra tenminute delay, but we have finished at least this tranche of voting and hopefully well have an opportunity to get through this last panel with an opportunity for questions and conclude the hearing before we have another round of votes. So thats the hope here. This second panel is perhaps more of our technical panel. We have several witnesses present to help answer questions about modern development on the north slope and what it might look like in the future. Joining us today are mr. Aaron shut. Hes the president and ceo of doyenne limited. Thank you for being here. You also brought your son and thats a great Educational Opportunity for him and we appreciate you both bes here. Although es epstein has been before the committee before. Shes the Arctic Program director for the wilderness society. Following ms. Epstein, well have mr. Richard glenn also a frequent flier here to the energy committee. Hes the executive Vice President for land and Natural Resources with the arctic slope regional corporation. And its going to have you back, richard. Known to many alaskans and many here in washington, d. C. , hes the former special assistant for Alaska Affairs at the department of interior during the previous administration. Welcome back, pat. And last on our panel is matthew cronyn. Hes a biologist, a inform Research Professor at the university of alaska fairbanks and some of us known him as the caribou man, but certainly one is that is well versed in the biology of many of these issues weve been discussing. Thank you all for traveling the distance to be here today. Thank you not only for your contributions before the hearing but also for the good work that you do in your respective areas. Aaron, if you would like to lead the panel off with your comments. Again, try to stick to five minutes if you can. Your full statement will be incorporated as part of the record, then well have an opportunity for questions. So welcome. Thank you, madam chairwoman, members of the committee. Doyon. Its a great opportunity to speak here today. Im a president and chief executive officer of doyon. Doyon is one of 13 native corporations under the act. Doyon supports the opening of the anwar coastal plain to development if it can be shown to do so in the protection of the porky pine herd. Many rely on that herd for subsistence and cultural survival. And we encourage the government to protect the porcupine herd. We operate on the north slope with eight of the most unique and advanced rigs in the industry and theyre designed especially for the arctic and doyon drilling has led in 40 years of its existence. Were proud of that role. When Congress Last debated opening anwar to Gas Development supporters made many arguments about the use of new technology and how it would minimize the impact on anwar. Since then a lot of these claims have borne out in the industry. Well share some of them today. A couple are directional extended reach multilateral drilling techniques that have been developed and per expected in that timeframe. And those techniques allow wells to be drilled from all directions from a well pad kind of like spokes on a bicycle wheel. It has been around since the 1970s, but at that time it was did not allow the reach that we can now. And so you could drill a couple square miles around a pad. I have a figure thats been shown before in the hearing today. Pu can see a couple three square miles using technology from the 1970s and fast taurd to one on the far right, the 12 acre pad where a drill can reach out and cover 125 square miles. That means that you can space pads and modern development up to ten miles apart and theres little to no surface impact between those pads. Thats a fairly dramatic shift in technology in that time period. The impact of those technological changes are not theoretical. Weve got another graphic coming up here. Doyons rig 142 recently found a well on alaskas north slope. Thats five production wells drilled from a single surface well bore. Each of those pentilateral wells drilled through sands and three different fault blocks, the total length of the wells is 49,000 feet. 28,000 feet of that i understand is in the production zone. If we had developed that 20 years ago would have likely required three drill pads and multiple wills on each to access the same resources we can access from a single surface location. Doyon is currently building an extended reach rig, rig 26, that will be able to reach out even further. Thats the 35,000 horizontal feet mentioned by several people earlier today. And thats the capability that allows to reach out for the full 125 square miles from a single surface well pad. Rig 26 will be able to drill from here on capitol hill and hit a target the size of certainly this room at the National Harbor resort and Convention Center on the Potomac River thats 6 1 2 miles away. Rig 26 is being developed to allow our client to develop known but currently untapped Oil Resources from existing surface inf infrastructure. In other words, our chilient wot have to build oil pads or roads to access known oil reserves. The technology has allowed smaller oil pads on the north slope and up to 70 smaller and theyre 70 to 80 fewer pads than prudhoe bay was developed in the 1970s. That 19 acre footprint goes down to just a few Hundred Acres to develop the alpine field on the western side. Finally, this has always been referenced. You have it upside down there. The impact of exploration on the environment is very minimal. The difference between exploration and production, you can see here a location in the npra with our rig 141, then weve got the summer version of the same location, senator sullivan mentioned this before. Also upside down. Where there is almost no lasting surface impact from exploration. So i wanted to close my testimony here bying how Important Oil and gas is to the economy of the state and to our company. We obviously have a large presence in the alaska oil and gas economy. It was developed because it was the available economy to us as a corporation in the 1970s with the development of prudhoe bay. And were proud that we employed our alaska shareholders and do it in an environmentally safe and protection of our employees is paramount. But to also provide income to our shareholders, a single drill rig, example, could have a salary impact of 4 million for our alaska shareholders per year on those rig. Those numbers are not theoretical either. Thats the reality we have for a number of years times the rigs we have working. In short were proud to be here today. Were supportive of opening anwar but only if we can assure ourselves of the porcupine herd. I appreciate the visuals as well. Lets next go to ms. Epstein. Welcome. Thank you very much, chairman murkowski and also, though shes not here, to Ranking Member cantwell, senator king and other members of the committee for inviting me to testify at this important hearing on a Critical National public lands issue. My name is lois epstein and my home is in anchorage. Our organization scientists began working in this region of the arctic in the 1930s and as an alaska licensed engineer im proud to be part of that legacy. The Arctic National wildlife is coastal lagoons along the nations wildest northern edge. There is no other place like it in america. For thousands of years the area has been home to the communities and has sustained them. It provides vital habitat for more than 45 species of mammals including one of alaskas largest caribou herds, wolves, dahl sheep and animals that come to breed from there all 50 states. The Arctic Refuge is the crown jewel of our nations wildlife refuge system. The 1. 5 million coastal plain is widely recognized as the biological heart of the refuge. The coastal plain is as important to our Nations National heritage as yellowstone and the grand canyon where we dont choose to drill. Now, contrast this pristine wild place with oil and Gas Exploration and production which is complicated and messy and a lot has not changed over the years to make it less so. Even the most well financed operators have blowouts and spills. Just this year bp had a production well blowout due to falling permafrost and International Well kill specialists had to fly in to prevent a safety disaster. This week the state is looking at all wells with similar designs because they are concerned for the potential for additional blowouts. In 2012 revsal had an exploratory well blow out that spewed 42,000 gallons of drilling muds. It took a year to plug that well because frigid temperatures prevented work on many day dates. According to the spill database there have been 21 spills in the last five years or approximately two per month. A 2010 state study showed almost five spills each year on the north slope and its important to recognize theyre not all small spill. Oil Development Infrastructure would sprawl over vast parts of the coastal plained a not be confined to 2,000 acres. It does not include roads or pipelines except in places where their support poles touch the ground. Trucks, aircraft and processing facilities, Long Distance pipelines and gravel roads that could deter some caribou from crossing and it costs them energy and wastes from Drilling Operations and living quarters that require disposal. Directional or extended reach drilling which is not a new technology will have the same impacts. Directional drilling reduces only one concern and that is pad size. Roads and airstrips are still needed pipelines still required and pollution and toxic spills are still inevitable. Because of higher costs, Directional Drilling may or may not be used by industry for exploratory drilling. S a discussed at the may 10 hearing in this committee, Oil Companies actually prefer not to use Directional Drilling for exploratory wells because doing so provides less techical information about subsurface condition. Directional drilling rhetoric is in some respects a trojan horse for access to the entire Arctic Refuge coastal plain for oil production. Neither the 2,000 acre provision nor Directional Drilling would prevent the entire coastal plain from becoming industrialized. An Arctic Refuge drilling is not needed. Transalaska oil pipeline flow is up 6 over the past three year ks and the department of nat really resources expects the through put to continue. And i have a figure and my testimony shows that. New facilities not on protected lands will increase production and this new technology that weve heard about is also very useful in existing oil fields to increase production. Notably drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not necessary to ensure that the transalaska oil pipeline remains viable for decades. The most recent cbo report was issued with limited domation in february 2012, the report estimates 5 billion no bonus bids split between the state and federal governments. Crude oil prices were approximately twice as high in 2012 as they are now making Arctic Refuge drilling significantly less attractive today and for the for seeable future. It is highly unlikely revenue and bonus bids on Arctic Refuge coastal plain leases will come close to cbos or others estimates. Since 2000 the average has been 34 an acre. In summary inclusion of the Arctic Refuge in the budget is less about meeting revenue targets and more about approving a controversial problematic measure to open up the coastal plain to Oil Development without the possibility of filibuster. It would be a black mark for alaska and the congress with future being allowed to darken this place. I am happy to answer your questions. Thank you, ms. Epstein. Mr. Glenn, welcome. Thank you, madam chairman. Committee members. Im happy to see that the other half of the Arctic Coalition of america is here. So thank you for staying for the hearing, senator king. My name is richard glenn. Im the Vice President of lands for arctic soap regional corporation. Its a native Alaskan Corporation created by congress in 1971. It is on the north slope and includes villages that extend from the west to the east in the arctic region of alaska from point hope, point lay, wainwright, norksuck and up uptok pass. Residents have depended on resources from the land and the oceans. Im a tribal member. Mr. Shut is a tribal member. Matthew who spoke before me is a tribal member. Our Lieutenant Governor is a tribal member. I was stunned by the Ranking Members comments that said she didnt see tribal members. And maybe she just didnt find enough tribal members that agree with her position. I hope that you hear from all of the tribal members of the state of alaska, the majority of whom support safe responsible exploration and development in anwar. Im also not here to debate the sacredness of the land on either side of the brooks range, the north or the south. For us all the lands are sacred. They contain the bones of our ancestors. And im not talking about ancient people. Im talking about people in living memory. We didnt start burying our dead until around the 1920s, so my greatgrandparents were the first generation of folks who were buried right after the flu epidemics swept through the region. Before those days, the tradition was to leave the residents, however temporary it was, where the person died. So ancient sod houses up until the early 1900s carry the bones of our people. Some of my ancestors bones, my grandfathers grandmother are in prudhoe bay. Others are scattered along the coastal plain from the Canadian Border to point hope. Our people are named after the places. The places are named after the people. And some of it is state land, some of it is federal land, some of it is nativeowned land but its all equally sacred, yet we depend on that land for development. We depend on that land for food. And i dont wish to trivialize anyones depend ens on the resources because ours is equally important. The asrc as a corporation owns a piece of this heritage. 92,000 acres of land on the coastal plane of anwar along with matthew rexfords village corporation. These lands hold resource potential for oil and Gas Development. Im a geologist by training. I help drill and develop Natural Resources on the north slope. I know the practices related to drilling. And ive seen the evolution over the past 50 years and 30 or so years of my own professional life from really simple drilling, cementing and production to the ornate and efficient diagrams that youve seen here on the posters that mr. Shut presented so effectively. The reduced footprint is real. Hundreds of square miles framed by tens of acres of development. Senator king asked how many wells are we talking about, how much surface impact. We have real world answers to those questions. Theyre here at the table. Theyre here in the audience. In the west end of todays exploration, on the coville river delta and just to the west where the native folks from another village 100 miles away also own resource potential 500 wells have been drilled. Down to depths around 8s,000, 9,000 feet and ranging outward as far as five or six mile. On these 500 wells production wells injector wells, theyre done from four basic central facilities for drilling covering maybe 300 acres of land. So now were talking real world examples, real world numbers of wells for at its peak hundreds of thousands of barrels a day in production. Thats the kind of development that wee envision moving into the coastal plain of anwar. This is a cartoon. This diagram shows dramatic exaggeration. If you follow the scale of this map, the dots themselves are two mile ace cross each. The well symbols themselves are three miles high. The pipelines if theyre shown as theyre shown on this map, the pipeline would be a quarter mile wide. This is not realistic. If you want to see Realistic Development look at realistic numbers. Go to the areas of modern exploration and development. And yet, one thing we learn in production is production declines. It starts at a peak and begins to decline. And the lion in the room on alaska production is prudhoe bay. The prudhoe bay and the river oil fields were supergiant oil fields and were on the shoulders of their new decline. The new discoveries as significant as they are and as thankful i am theyve been discovered they cant match the slope of the decline they can just change the slope still of decline. Meanwhile 92,000 acres and the million acres of the coastal plain of anwar area set aside just for its Energy Potential lies fallow. And we cant even test their potential unless congress acts. We think that the alaska native landowners and the folks from the arctic scope region cannot realize their right to economic selfdetermination if Congress Fails to lift the prohibition on safe and responsible exploration and development of the coastal plain. So Congress Needs to act. My organization was agreement made between congress and the tribes of alaska. We didnt ask for it. In fact, we fought against it. But were living with the results. And so in our region we have a braided relationship of municipalities, tribes and corporations were all welded together, braided together like a rope. So you cant separate tribe from corporation and you cant separate our mothers languages from the language of discourse were using here today. I could speak in the language of my mother and it would be gibberish to you and frankly disrespectful to everybody. The only Indigenous People that should be listened to the loudest are the folks from paktovik. And todays hearing to me shows theres a lack of attention paid to them. Listen to what theyre saying. They need an economy. They need development in their area. They want to have the freedom to do what the rest of the country seemingly takes for granted, were talking about reliable power, water and schools and the ability to use sanitation that keeps their kids healthy. I strongly recommend that the committee look at the testimony of the folks from the village of paktovik. If you look at the tribal folks throughout alaska we dont agree 100 but the majority do agree. We believe that wildlife and development can coexist. They already do today. In fact, were collaring caribou that are calving in the area of development around prudhoe bay and the kuparik river. This is the alaska fish and game, usblm and wildlife biologists are collaring caribou, theyre calving in the area of infrastructure and then migrating south to Arctic Village to be hunted by our neighbors to the south. So we already are hunting caribou who are calving in areas of development. Ive had the honor of taking some of you on tour of north slope development. We see caribou there underneath pipelines, sometimes underneath facilities like man camps and hotels and when theyre trying to get away from summer mosquitoes, caribou will go anywhere. Theyll be laying down on the tundra right next to the buses taking the codels through the area. The caribou arent afraid. Richard, well have to ask you to wrap up. The caribou arent afraid because theyre not being hunted there. So the wildlife and infrastructure can ko exist. We speak with favor of a safe and expeditious opening of the 1002 area. It would be good to our state, and region. Thank you. Hopefully well have the opportunity to ask more so you can continue. Welcome. Chairman murkowski, members of the committee, thank you for the privilege to testify today on the Arctic National wildlife refuge. Today im testifying as a retired Public Servant and a private citizen. My last lives in alaska have included serving in the alaska state legislature, as commissioner of the Alaska Department of nat really resource, nork for the Alaska Federation of natives and audubon alaska and special assistant to the secretary of the interior for Alaska Affairs. I will confess from the outset that ive worked for those who favored drilling in the Arctic Refuge and for those who have opposed exploration and development. Since my participation is as a congressional staffer in the passes of the Lands Conservation act 40 years ago ive witnessed the decades of debate on the issue of permitting oil and gas Leasing Development in the refuge. As an alaskan, i appreciate the economic benefits that might accrue from Oil Development in the refuge, but ive come to the conclusion that the last piece of americas arctic is more appropriately left as wilderness is a far more valuable legacy for future generations. Ive had the opportunity to hike the mountains and float wild rivers in the refuge to observe herds of care radkarcaribou on plain and fly over snow dwees gathering on the coastal plain. There can be no denying that the Arctic Refuge is one of the most spectacular places on the planet. It stretches over 600 miles from the Canadian Border west ward to the sea. Most of this area is available for oil and Gas Development. In the central arctic Oil Development on state lands surrounding prudhoe bay sprawls for over a hundred miles from the beaufort sea coast. Further west development are proceeding in the 23 million acre Natural Petroleum reserve alaska. Now it is proposed to explore and development the last remaining part of the coastal plain, our national heritage. Some argue that the 1. 5 million acres proposed for development in the refuge represents only a small fraction of the refuge and development would not significantly impact the overall refuge but the narrow coast aal plain is the biological heart of the refuge. It is an integral component and provides key habitat for waterfowl and denning sites for polar bear. The resources report call for in section 2002 of anilka found that the, quote, 1002 area is the most biological productive part of the Arctic Refuge for wildlife and is the center of wildlife activity, unquote. And why are we proposing to develop the last remaining part of the coastal plain . Are we at war and need more oil for our nations security . Have we run out of oil, gas and gasoline for our homes and cars . Do we really think that leasing revenues will help our federal and state budgets . The answer is clearly no to all these questions and the answer should be no the question of allowing oil and Gas Development in the refuge. I was moved by the documentary the national parks. In the late 1950s a dedicated group of fairbanks residents have had a best idea to protect the brooks range in the Northeast Corner of alaska. In 1960, the 9 Million National range was created and you land owner be secretary of interior seton for the purpose of quote preserving unique wildlife and wilderness and recreational values. This was renewed about the pass
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