Arctic Drilling Research Articles

Hydrothermal coupling model between wellbore and permafrost for drilling in arctic cold regions

The abundant oil and natural gas resources in the Arctic cold regions have driven people to conduct drilling operations in these harsh environments. During drilling operations in Arctic permafrost regions, the linear heat source effect generated by the flow of drilling fluid in the wellbore continuously melts the surrounding permafrost, which can lead to wellhead settlement and instability of the wellbore wall, among other accidents. In order to provide guidance for drilling engineering in cold regions, there is an urgent need to study the coupled heat transfer between the wellbore and the permafrost in Arctic drilling. Due to the significant influence of hydrothermal coupling process in permafrost on temperature transfer, conventional wellbore heat transfer models are not suitable. Therefore, this paper proposes a hydrothermal coupling model between the wellbore and permafrost for drilling in Arctic cold regions and analyzes the heat transfer in the wellbore and the hydrothermal processes of the formation using numerical methods. By applying this model, the insulation effects of existing main wellbore temperature control and insulation technologies were studied. The main research findings indicate that drilling process can cause the permafrost around the wellbore to thaw, and the thawed permafrost around the wellbore presents a “horn” shape that expands from the wellhead to the bottom of permafrost layer; Without insulation measures, the volume of thawed permafrost around the wellbore can reach 315 m³ after 7 days of circulation; During the drilling process, moisture migration occurs. Under the effect of gravitational seepage, unfrozen water content in the thawed permafrsot around the wellbore increases from the wellhead to the bottom of the permafrsot layer; Vacuum insulated tubing has almost negligible impact on the temperature of the drilling fluid in the wellbore, while it can reduce the volume of thawed permafrost around the wellbore by 62.5 % to 88 % or even higher; Drilling fluid cooling systems can significantly lower the temperature of the drilling fluid in the wellbore but cannot effectively prevent the thawing of permafrost around the wellbore. Therefore, in practical drilling operations, priority should be given to using high-quality vacuum insulated tubing or combining both methods simultaneously.

Arctic Drilling in the United States energy revolution context: An accumulated story in environment vs energy contradiction

Arctic Drilling is one of the controversial issues in United States (US) politics regarding oil and environmental policies. The story of Arctic Drilling can only be uncovered within the context of being triggered by the tightening global and US oil market at the beginning of the millennium. However, various dynamics have become essential to define whether Arctic Drilling is the best ‘to meet national energy needs’ through this process. Especially, environmental concern, as one of the most determining developments of this process, has led to environment versus energy contradiction that holds debate ground for the issue. Such a contradiction can be recognised and uncovered by a historical-dialectical approach that considers both material and ideational spheres. By applying this approach, this research has found that oil politics, domestic politics and foreign policy orientations of the US are interrelated to determine the perception of Arctic Drilling between policymakers, private industry, local people, environmental groups and lobby groups. This interaction shapes the context of the Arctic Drilling policy process.

Experimental study on ultra-low temperature drilling fluid in Arctic permafrost

Drilling fluid in Arctic permafrost needs to have good ultra-low temperature rheology, shale inhibition, hydrate inhibition and environmental protection performance. In this work, the properties of ultra-low temperature drilling fluid and additives have been evaluated by using rheology and fluid filtration tests, shale inhibition tests, hydrate inhibition tests, thermal conductivity measurements and biotoxicity tests. Thereafter, the key additives have been optimized and the ultra-low temperature water-based drilling fluid formula was developed. The results show that the base fluid, which combined NaCl and ethylene glycol (EG), can meet the requirement of freezing point in Arctic drilling, and it also has low thermal conductivity and good hydrate inhibition. Xanthan gum (XC) and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) have been selected as viscosifiers, carboxymethyl starch (CMS) as filtrate reducer and polyetheramine as shale inhibitor. The drilling fluid has good ultra-low temperature rheology with the freezing point of −32 °C. Furthermore, it has low thermal conductivity, and can inhibit shale dispersion, expansion and collapse, which is conducive to the stability of wellbore in Arctic permafrost. In addition, it can effectively inhibit hydrate formation and has good environmental protection performance. The drilling fluid invented in this study can provide technical support for ultra-low temperature drilling in Arctic permafrost.

Dirty Banking: Probing the Gap in Sustainable Finance

In 2016, the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance estimated the market for sustainable investments to have reached 22.89 trillion USD of assets under management. While financial institutions have embraced the idea of sustainable finance as a business opportunity, they have arguably done little, but to piggy-back on investors’ demand. Today, it is not unusual for a single firm to retail fossil free investment funds and concomitantly offer commercial loans towards fracking, coal, and Arctic drilling. This paradox is underpinned by a major gap in the way sustainability has permeated primary and secondary markets which, we argue, calls for a serious rethinking of the sustainability transition in finance. This article proposes two contributions in this direction. First, we develop an original conceptualisation of finance as a socio-technical system to discuss the dynamics that both hinder and promote a transition from mainstream to sustainable finance. Second, we propose to study how investment banks integrate sustainability in their underwriting services. To do so, we filter through close to half a million of debt and equity underwriting deals (2005–2017) using the Government Pension Fund Global of Norway’s list of 153 excluded companies. Our results suggest that investment banks do not shy away from underwriting companies that have been flagged for major environmental, social, and governance misconduct, neither do they restrain from underwriting companies providing contentious products, such as tobacco, coal, and nuclear weapons. Moving forward, we suggest ways to address this problem and call for further research on the responsibility and agency of finance and advanced business services firms in sustainability transitions.

Ice wicking

Liquid-ice interactions are becoming increasingly relevant for many applications including hydraulic fracturing, arctic drilling, and liquid-impregnated surfaces. It is therefore surprising that the capillary action of a liquid wicking across the surface of ice has never been characterized. We observe silicone oil as it wicks up sheets of frost grown on vertically oriented aluminum surfaces of varying wettability. Superhydrophilic and hydrophilic surfaces promote the growth of continuous frost sheets which displace oil with a power-law slope of 1/3 with respect to time. While in contrast to the 1/2 slope of Washburn's law governing most porous media, the 1/3 slope can be rationalized by considering the dendritic frost structure as an array of vertical wedges incapable of supporting the liquid's weight. Nonwetting surfaces grow frost from a more dilute distribution of frozen dropwise condensate, resulting in lower slopes of 1/4 for hydrophobic surfaces and nearly zero for superhydrophobic surfaces promoting jumping-droplet condensation. When switching to a near-horizontal orientation, Washburn's law is obtained for continuous frost sheets. The spreading rate of a liquid across frost can therefore be controlled by tuning the underlying surface wettability or surface orientation. Finally, we show that oils cannot wick inside of a bulk volume of frozen water due to the small pore size of the hexagonal lattice structure.1 MoreReceived 25 May 2018DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.4.024002©2019 American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasInterfacial flowsWettingFluid Dynamics

Automated Operations and Wired Drillpipe Benefit Arctic Drilling

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 191574, “Delivering Drilling Automation II: Novel Automation Platform and Wired Drillpipe Deployed on Arctic Drilling Operations,” by Riaz Israel, Doug McCrae, Nathan Sperry, Brad Gorham, Jacob Thompson, and Kyle Raese, BP, and Steven Pink and Andrew Coit, SPE, NOV, prepared for the 2018 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, 24–26 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed. This paper presents a case history of drilling automation system pilot deployment, including the use of wired drillpipe, on an Arctic drilling operation. Two major aspects of technology were introduced during this pilot, the first being a drilling automation software platform that allowed secure access to the rig’s drilling control system. The second component was a wired drillstring, which provides high-speed delivery of downhole data from a series of distributed downhole sensors. Introduction In an effort to enhance the safety of its operations, improve well construction efficiency, and leverage the potential opportunities presented by digitalization of drilling, the operator has initiated a Remote Operations and Intelligent Automation Project. The project involved the deployment of an automation operating system (AOS) on top of an existing drilling control system. The AOS provides the ability for secure, programmatic control of the rig’s major drilling hardware through the use of software. The software interface allows for custom configuration of several routine drilling activities for automated execution. The project also evaluated the latest version of the service company’s wired drillpipe (WDP). At the time of writing, the project has delivered eight wells, with various combinations of the technology implemented. The overall objectives of the project were to evaluate The readiness of the AOS for wider deployment The reliability of the latest version of WDP The maturity of the AOS drilling applications The effectiveness of this technology in reducing well costs For each well, key performance indicators (KPIs) were defined that aligned with the project-level KPIs and are dependent on the specific aspect of the technology being used on that well. Field Description The giant Prudhoe Bay field, on the North Slope of Alaska on the edge of the Arctic Circle, was discovered in 1968 with an initial estimate of 22 billion to 25 billion bbl of oil in place and has been in production since June 1977. Since the field began production, it has generated more than 12.5 billion bbl of oil, making it the most productive US oil field. The field has been a proving ground for advanced drilling techniques, including multilateral and coiled tubing, now used in oil fields around the globe. Production from Prudhoe Bay is supported by ongoing drilling activity. Technology Description An overview of the automation technology is presented in Fig. 1.

Economic questions on global warming during the Trump years

This paper examines the rapid changes made on U.S. climate change policies and regulations under the Trump administration for the past 22 months since his inauguration in January 2017. Policy changes are made on a wide range of climate‐related programs: Paris Agreement, Green Climate Fund, Clean Power Plan, CAFÉ automobile emission standards, arctic drilling, methane rule, and farm animal emissions. This paper discusses that Trump effects will soon be observed by several empirical indicators.

Delegitimizing the enemy: framing, tactical innovation, and blunders in the battle for the Arctic

ABSTRACTUtilizing scholarship on legitimation, tactical innovation, and blunders, this paper examines the dynamics by which Greenpeace tried to gain legitimacy and delegitimize Shell in the conflict over Arctic drilling. Content analysis of news media mentions found that the vast majority of Greenpeace frames centered on the ethical concerns surrounding Arctic drilling, mainly potential consequences such as oil spills and climate change. In contrast, Shell’s efforts to delegitimize Greenpeace were limited and more evenly distributed between scientific claims about the safety of drilling in the Arctic, economic opportunities such as jobs created, and ethical claims about Greenpeace threatening the safety of Shell crews. The tactically innovative use of celebrity endorsements by Greenpeace was particularly influential for mobilizing and gaining news attention when combined with occupations. Viral videos gained little news media attention, yet helped mobilize Greenpeace support when they featured a celebrity. In response, Shell tactics overwhelmingly involved litigation against Greenpeace which had some success in neutralizing the occupation tactic. Blunders by Shell amplified resonance of Greenpeace delegitimation frames, ultimately contributing to Shell ceasing their Arctic drilling operations in 2013.

Effects of CO2 and H2S on Corrosion of Martensitic Steels in Brines at Low Temperature

Corrosion studies were conducted for martensitic carbon steels in 5 wt% NaCl brine solutions at 4°C and 10 MPa (1,450 psi). These studies simulated different subsurface environments relevant to Arctic drilling. Here, two high-strength martensitic carbon steels, S-135 and UD-165, were studied in three different environments: (1) a CO2-NaCl-H2O solution with a CO2:H2O molar ratio of 0.312 in the whole system, (2) an H2S-NaCl-H2O solution with an H2S:H2O molar ratio of 3.12 × 10−4, and (3) a CO2-H2S-NaCl-H2O solution with the same acid gas to water ratios as environments 1 and 2. Results from the CO2+H2S mixed environment indicated that sour corrosion mechanism was dominant when the CO2:H2S molar ratio was 1,000. This impact of a small amount of H2S on the corrosion mechanism could be attributed to the specific adsorption of H2S on the steel surface. Electrochemical and mass loss measurements showed a distinct drop in the corrosion rate (CR) by more than one order of magnitude when transitioning from sweet to sour corrosion. This inhibiting effect on CR was attributed to the formation of a protective sulfide thin film. Tafel analyses of the anodic reaction showed that the Bockris mechanism was unlikely in the conditions tested. When comparisons were made between modeled and experimental CRs, good agreement was found in the CO2-only and H2S-only environments, but not in the CO2+H2S environment.

Arctic drilling, controversial reforms and new views of Saturn.

Arctic drilling, controversial reforms and new views of Saturn.

Declining Arctic Ocean oil and gas developments: Opportunities to improve governance and environmental pollution control

There has been global interest in the exploitation of rich hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic for decades. However, recent low oil prices, a low carbon economy climate agenda, and technical challenges of Arctic oil extraction have curbed interest in these Arctic resources. Despite a recent reluctance to explore and develop an offshore Arctic drilling industry, a resurgence in oil and gas prices could spark renewed interests that could pose unacceptable risks of pollution from oil spills. These risks are further compounded by complex governance and sovereignty issues between circumpolar nations. This paper (i) compares cycles of Arctic hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation activity with global energy prices; (ii) outlines current pollution abatement techniques under pan-Arctic national regulations to identify potential gaps; (iii) describes current international frameworks for Arctic governance to highlight how problems could arise if offshore oil drilling returns to the Arctic and associated spills migrate to international waters; and (iv) provides policy recommendations to aid both national and international policy-makers regarding pollution abatement methods for future Arctic drilling.

Risk-Based Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Waste Handling Practices in the Arctic Drilling Operation

As oil and gas companies in the Arctic attempt to maximize the value of each project and optimize their portfolio of investment opportunities, it has become vital to evaluate drilling waste handling practices for their cost-effectiveness in order to support strategic decisions. Identifying cost-effective waste handling practices, which have a minimal environmental footprint, however, is one of the biggest challenges for Arctic offshore industries. The cost and potential risks of drilling waste handling practices in the Arctic offshore operation will differ vastly, depending on the operating environment such as the ice conditions and negative sea temperature. However, in the majority of the available cost-effectiveness and risk analysis literature, the influence of the operating environment on the cost and risk profile has received less attention. Hence, the aim of this paper is to propose a methodology for risk-based cost-effectiveness analysis (RB–CEA) of drilling waste handling practices by considering the complex and fast-changing nature of the Arctic. The central thrust of this paper is to highlight the fact that comparing different alternatives based on the cost elements alone is misleading. The proposed methodology uses risk assessment as a key component for the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). The application of the proposed methodology is demonstrated by a case study of the drilling waste handling practices of an oil field in the Barents Sea. The case study results demonstrate that the operating environment causes costs to be between 1.18 and 1.52 times greater, depending on the type of practices and operating season, in the Arctic offshore compared with the North Sea. Further, the risk of undesirable events is between 1.48 and 2.60 times greater during waste handling activities under Arctic operational conditions.

Acoustic vector sensor beamforming reduces masking from underwater industrial noise during passive monitoring.

Masking from industrial noise can hamper the ability to detect marine mammal sounds near industrial operations, whenever conventional (pressure sensor) hydrophones are used for passive acoustic monitoring. Using data collected from an autonomous recorder with directional capabilities (Directional Autonomous Seafloor Acoustic Recorder), deployed 4.1 km from an arctic drilling site in 2012, the authors demonstrate how conventional beamforming on an acoustic vector sensor can be used to suppress noise arriving from a narrow sector of geographic azimuths. Improvements in signal-to-noise ratio of up to 15 dB are demonstrated on bowhead whale calls, which were otherwise undetectable using conventional hydrophones.

A methodology for identification of a suitable drilling waste handling system in the Arctic region

As the demands to reduce the environmental impact of oil and gas operations increase in the Arctic region, the need to identify suitable waste handling systems becomes more essential. The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology for identifying a suitable drilling waste handling system, by considering the distinctive operating conditions of the Arctic region. The proposed methodology can help the user to explore and assess waste minimisation, handling, treatment, and disposal techniques for Arctic drilling that fit a wide range of operating requirements and needs. By making use of the proposed methodology, a suitable waste handling system that ensures sustainability and fulfils health, safety, and environmental (HSE) standards can be recommended. The application of the methodology is demonstrated by a case study of drilling waste handling practices in the Johan Castberg oil and gas field, located in the Barents Sea.

Big Barriers to Building a New Generation of Arctic Vessels

The industry’s experience thus far drilling offshore the Arctic is a powerful argument to build a new generation of vessels and drilling rigs purpose built for operations in heavy ice. Many of the new exploration concepts that seek to overcome challenges in the Arctic were presented at the recent 2014 Arctic Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. Alexander Brovkin, a facilities and logistics adviser at the Chevron Arctic Center, agrees that while new vessel technology is needed for exploration drilling in the Arctic, first the resource must be proved by the drill bit. “An operator must first have a portfolio of Arctic wells before making a significant capital investment to design or build something new,” he said, adding that companies will be pushed to make decisions soon in order to comply with the terms and deadlines set by their offshore leases. Following Shell’s recent experiences, Arctic exploration off North America is at the moment paralyzed. Considered to be two of the most promising Arctic areas, development in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas offshore Alaska has stalled out despite there being dozens of leases in those areas set to expire over the next couple of years. And after spending billions of dollars on its Arctic drilling program to date, Shell canceled all operations in the area for this year. The decision followed a series of accidents during the company’s Alaskan expeditions that began 2 years ago, one of which involved a drillship running aground, and a United States federal court decision that created uncertainty over the terms of its leases. ConocoPhillips and Statoil followed suit and have indefinitely postponed their Arctic drilling plans off Alaska. However, in the Russian Arctic, ExxonMobil and Rosneft are pressing ahead with a joint venture using conventional semisubmersible technology, which limits their operations to the open water season.

Emerging Frontiers: The Arctic Frontier

President's column One of the oil and gas industry’s most talked about emerging frontiers—but perhaps least understood in terms of familiar metrics—is the Arctic region. The Arctic refers to a portion of the globe above 66.5o N latitude that is roughly the size of Africa. Encompassing about 6% of the Earth’s surface, the Arctic consists of about one-third land, one-third continental shelf, and one-third waters deeper than 500 m (Budzick. 2009). The Arctic contains portions of eight countries: Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. I cannot imagine any other region on Earth this large that has had so few efforts to explore for, develop, and produce hydrocarbons. Arctic History Indigenous people of the Arctic have known for centuries about oil seeps along the coastal plains, and even used pitch as a sealant on canoes. Back in 1789, oil seeps along the Mackenzie River, located within Canada, were reported by Russian settlers in Alaska (Bishop. 2011). Shell geologists first investigated Alaska’s oil potential in 1918. Sub-arctic oil was first discovered in Canada’s Northwest Territories in the 1920s. Russian geoscientists began exploring northern Siberia during World War II, and made their first major oil and gas discoveries there in the early 1960s (Bishop. 2011). The first US federal lease sale on Alaska’s North Slope was held in 1958, and the first offshore lease sale in the Beaufort Sea in 1979. From the 1960s through the late 1980s, oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay, gas was discovered in the Barents Sea, and the first exploration wells were drilled in the US Chukchi Sea. After a period of inactivity due to low oil prices, exploration resumed in Canada’s Mackenzie Delta region in 2000, and in the US portion of the Beaufort Sea in 2005. The 5-month 2010 US moratorium on new deepwater drilling had an adverse impact on US Arctic drilling activity, and political and environmental opposition to Arctic exploration has been tougher since the moratorium was lifted, both in the US and elsewhere. Nevertheless, due to growing demand and declining production from mature oil fields worldwide, international operators and governments have been initiating new Arctic exploration activities. This past summer, Norway opened a new area in the southeastern Barents Sea to offshore drilling. The service sector is following. Schlumberger and Baker Hughes, for example, opened new bases in the Norwegian town of Hammerfest, on the 71st parallel. Size of the Prize Any estimate of Arctic hydrocarbon resources suffers from considerable uncertainty, due to the limited amount of data from wells drilled throughout this enormous region. In 2008, the US Geological Survey completed the Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal. The study estimated total undiscovered conventional hydrocarbon resources of 90 billion bbl of oil, 1,669 Tcf of natural gas, and 44 billion bbl of natural gas liquids—a total of 412 billion BOE. That constitutes about 30% of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13% of the undiscovered oil (Bishop. 2011).

Deepwater Spill Control Devices Go Global

The first thing a visitor sees at Trendsetter Engineering is a massive device standing ready if the worst happens on a well in the Gulf of Mexico. This amalgam of connectors, pipes, valves, and blowout preventers (BOPs) is a capping stack—a name that entered the language in 2010 when the first one was quickly assembled to shut off the flow of oil from the Macondo field. The Helix Well Containment Group (HWCG), which has 25 member companies, stores this early example of what has become a global trend. Industry organizations and operators now have more than 15 capping stacks in service and on order. Many of them have been built, or will be, at Trendsetter. On a day in early April, the engineering consulting and equipment maker was building a capping stack for Shell, which will be part of its Arctic drilling program. And they were planning to build another designed by Shell to fit into the narrow space beneath a tension-leg platform. When complete, that one will become the property of the Marine Well Containment Corp. (MWCC), serving 10 large operators in the Gulf of Mexico. By year’s end, MWCC will have three capping stacks and a growing inventory of related equipment, including two vessels to capture, process, and offload crude to tankers and flare natural gas. Another four capping stacks to be built by Trendsetter will be deployed to offshore oil basins around the globe by the Subsea Well Response Project (SWRP), a nine-member Norway-based industry group. BP recently added another capping stack in the Houston area that also has a global mission. The device, weighing more than 100 tons, can be broken down into two pieces and flown anywhere that BP is working offshore, said Geir Karlsen, BP Containment Response Team leader. A variety of factors are pushing a trend that started in the Gulf of Mexico after the Macondo disaster led regulators to require that operators seeking drilling permits demonstrate they can control a deep sea blowout. Two ventures, MWCC and HWCG, were created to cooperatively provide those services in the Gulf of Mexico. When Shell sought permits to drill offshore in Alaska, it faced a similar requirement and needed a capping stack there. In the North Sea, operators formed the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group (OSPRAG) with a stack built by Cameron designed for conditions there. International oil companies, such as Shell and BP, have internal standards for offshore operations requiring capping stacks be available around the world, which many countries are coming to expect. They responded with caps of their own and by being part of SWRP.

US Coast Guard preps for Shell's potential Arctic oil drilling

US Coast Guard preps for Shell's potential Arctic oil drilling

Did a single species of Eocene Azolla spread from the Arctic Basin to the southern North Sea?

Recent Arctic drilling has revealed that the freshwater surface-floating heterosporous fern Azolla arctica Collinson et al. (Azollaceae, Salviniales) bloomed and reproduced in the Arctic Ocean on a massive scale during the early Middle Eocene. These blooms have been suggested to have been capable of significant drawdown of atmospheric CO 2 paving the way to Cenozoic climatic cooling. Sites of similar age across the Arctic and Nordic Seas also contain Azolla fossils suggestive of an area much larger than the Arctic Ocean being affected by Azolla blooms, as far south as Denmark. Here we investigate the Danish occurrences known from the Lillebælt Clay Formation, transitional Ypresian/Lutetian in age (latest Early Eocene to earliest Middle Eocene). The Lillebælt Clay is a marine deposit rich in diverse organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts yet conspicuously characterized by abundant co-occurring and interconnected fully mature Azolla megaspores and microspore massulae. Perhaps surprisingly, we find that multiple morphological and ultrastructural characters distinguish the Danish Azolla species from Azolla arctica and it is here described as Azolla jutlandica sp. nov. Therefore, contrary to expectations given the overlapping age of these assemblages, it appears that not a single Azolla species has spread from the Arctic to the Southern North Sea either through freshwater spills from the Arctic Ocean or as a result of rapid spread due to highly invasive biology. Apparently Northern Hemisphere middle and high latitude conditions near the termination of a period known as the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) were suitable for proliferation of two different Azolla species, one in the Arctic Ocean and one in the southern North Sea.

Evidence of Biased Processing of Natural Resource-Related Information: A Study of Attitudes Toward Drilling for Oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which individuals process natural resource-related information in a biased manner. Data were gathered using surveys administered to students enrolled in undergraduate classes at Colorado State University. Students' attitudes toward Arctic drilling were evaluated both before and after they were exposed to exaggerated information about both sides of the issue. Consistent with initial expectations, respondents' attitudes did not change as a result of exposure to new information. Respondents defended their initial attitudes in rating the quality of the information. Those who expressed initial support for drilling evaluated pro-drilling arguments more favorably and discounted anti-drilling arguments, while those in opposition to drilling tended to favor the anti-drilling arguments in their evaluations. Evidence of biased processing suggests that the provision of factual information may not be enough if the goal of education programs is to change attitudes toward controversial natural resource issues.