BP's Chappell doesn't sugarcoat it. Oil production means huge drills chewing through the Earth. Slurries of mud and seawater are pumped down the hole at high pressure. Pipe and electrical transmission lines branch for hundreds of miles. But today's oil production is neater, faster and cleaner than that of 20 years ago.
Ice roads carry heavy equipment across the fragile tundra, then melt in summer.
Computers guide drills inch by inch for 7 miles through pipe as flexible as a hollow reed. Sensors measure naturally occurring gamma radiation signatures to learn whether the drill is hitting shale or oil-bearing rock. One bit can thread its way to several deposits using the same bore. None of it is foolproof. Karl Brower finds it difficult to imagine the arrival of such technology in his backyard.