In another article this is tied in with fracking. Thats what this is all about. 
At its producing Oooguruk field on the North Slope, Caelus is already drilling horizontal wells and conducting what Musselman called the "biggest fracks" in the state, using close to 3 million pounds of "proppant," a term for sand used to fracture reservoir rocks. 

"We've become very good at fracking these wells," Musselman said. "We've improved every year and our production has improved every year. We've added new reserves at Oooguruk and our production is 20,000 barrels a day today."