SAExploration and Kuukpik seek state permit for winter seismic survey at Pikka and Quokka

SAExploration and Kuukpik Corporation, the village corporation for Nuiqsut, want to run a 3D seismic survey this winter across about 205 square miles of the North Slope, and the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas opened public comment on the plan Wednesday. The notice says the data would inform oil exploration and development. Written comments are due by 4:30 pm Alaska Standard Time on Dec. 4.

The survey area covers state, private and Kuukpik land, but the state permit would apply only to state land.

SAExploration filed the application Oct. 5. The application schedules move-in Jan. 2, 2027, and survey work from Jan. 9 to March 24. About 12 rubber-tracked vibrators and two smaller ones would send energy into the ground, and about 40,000 recording nodes would record it. Crews would live in a sleigh camp for up to 180 people that moves every two to seven days.

The survey, called Pikka-Quokka 3D, covers ground Santos wants to develop. Santos' nearby Pikka field began producing oil in May. Santos subsidiary Oil Search (Alaska) applied to the Army Corps of Engineers June 12 to build the Quokka Development Project, 15 miles east of Nuiqsut. It would have two drill sites of up to 50 wells each, a processing plant sized for about 80,000 barrels a day, and fill over 129.2 acres of wetlands and other waters. Every section the Corps application lists in three townships also falls inside the seismic survey's boundaries.

Santos said April 8 it planned a 3D survey of the Nanushuk reservoir in winter 2026-27. That release named no contractor or survey area, and the seismic application names no client. Santos has not said whether this is its survey.

The application lists approvals still needed. They include North Slope Borough permits, a Fish and Game habitat permit, a letter of non-objection from Kuukpik and a federal letter of authorization for unintended harm to polar bears.

Which federal rule would govern that authorization is open. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed rules specific to SAExploration May 18, and no final version was found. A separate oil industry rule took effect Oct. 19 and covers seismic surveys. As Alaska News reported Oct. 16, it lets companies seek five more years of coverage. It names Quokka among its development areas and lets member companies' contractors apply.

On the SAExploration proposal, the company supported the rule. "Seismic programs are seasonal, temporary, and highly mobile," CEO Forrest Burkholder wrote in the company's June comments. Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang urged the service to finalize it in a June 16 letter. Six conservation groups asked the service to deny the request. They wrote that "there is a substantial probability that these activities could result in the death or serious injury of polar bear adults and cubs." They also argued the service is wrongly separating SAExploration's work from the industry rule, since the company works for that rule's member companies.

The application says the company will meet with the Native Village of Nuiqsut before the season starts. It says a coordinator will give the community maps of planned work 24 and 48 hours ahead, and the company will help find local subsistence observers to work on the crew.