An oil pipeline runs from an on-shore tie-in facility, the production and metering facility for the Caelus Energy Oooguruk Development Project.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Economics
The Monumentally Expensive Quest to Pull Off an Alaskan Oil Miracle
Caelus Energy and Jim Musselman are braving polar bears, bitter cold and harsh economic reality.
It’s hard to tell where the world ends here on the Alaska North Slope.
In the subzero twilight, when the Arctic winds snarl, snow and cloud stretch to every horizon in a seamless vault of spectral white. Beyond the tundra, five miles out on the frozen sea, oil workers from a tiny outfit called Caelus Energy have welded the drilling rig shut against trespassing polar bears.