Deadhorse, Alaska -- The delegation left Barrow Saturday at 8 a.m. and flew to the Alpine oil field, about an hour away by air. While at Alpine, they toured the facility and received a briefing on the technology in use there. They saw close clusters of directional wells capable of draining a subsurface area greater than 50 square miles. The delegation then visited the Lapetus exploration rig, an exploratory well being drilled eight miles away. The delegation traveled via bus over ice roads that melt in the spring, leaving no sign that the road had ever been there, the delegation was told. The bus passed several caribou grazing on the tundra. The caribou kick a thin coat of snow away to reach short grass that remains on the tundra through the winter. The Lapetus rig – approximately 3 stories high – had been constructed two weeks earlier and would be pulled down in 10 days, rig workers told the delegation. The rig was built to be split in half and hauled away on trucks over the ice roads, leaving no sign of its presence except a narrow exploratory well capped below the surface. The oil exploration in the NPRA and surrounding state lands ceases each year by the end of April, leaving the tundra to spring and the wildlife. Energy development resumes again the following winter, rig workers told the delegation. After spending the day at Alpine and Lapetus, the delegation boarded planes late in the afternoon and flew 30 minutes to Deadhorse where delegation members spent the night. Members of the delegation include Senate Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Pete V. Domenici, Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah; Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, DOI Secretary Gale Norton, DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman and CEQ Director Jim Connaughton.