The US government certainly prevents drilling on too large and area, insanely large.
However, there is over 150 million acres outside the federal control. Almost as big as all of Texas and larger than California.
Alaska has created many roadblock, mostly taxes and fees, to make it tough to be economic. In my opinion, the biggest problem with the continued effort by the state to never stop changing the tax structure. There is no stability. Project up there take a long time to develop and then pay out. Tax structure typically changes twice before they reach break even point.
It is not a business friendly environment, and the oil/gas industry is specifically targeted. For example, property taxes are only local, unless it is oil/gas producing property. If it is an oil/gas production, then it must pay a state level property tax. Not to be confused with royalties and production taxes, which they also pay.
“It is not a business friendly environment, and the oil/gas industry is specifically targeted.” Almost half of the employed people of Alaska work for a branch of the Gov’t.: county, state or federal. Many of those people are hostile to the oil industry, which is looked upon as a cow to be milked. The milk is called the “dividend”, an annual payout to residents that is extracted from oil companies.