Pikka Project
RSSPikka Project in Alaska is a major oil development in the Nanushuk geologic play on the North Slope. It lies in the Colville River Delta, operated by Santos with partner Repsol, and includes the Nanushuk processing facility linked to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
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Photo: BLM Alaska via Wikimedia Commons · Photo source · Public domain
Santos will hold Pikka near 70,000 barrels a day for now, short of its 80,000 target
Santos plans to hold output at its North Slope Pikka field near 70,000 barrels a day for a period before ramping up to its 80,000-barrel target, according to the company's third-quarter report, dated Oct. 22. Santos said the hold lets water injection replenish what it calls reservoir voidage.
"This is a deliberate decision, and part of our disciplined approach to reservoir management," Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said in the report. He said production would be curtailed "for a short period of time." The report doesn't say how long it will last.
The state's revenue forecast assumes 518,500 barrels a day of North Slope production this fiscal year, more than the Slope produced in any of the past four years. The state is counting on new oil, chiefly from Pikka, to make up the difference.
Santos narrowed its 2026 production outlook to 99 million to 102 million barrels of oil equivalent, a measure that counts gas and oil together, from an earlier range of 99 million to 105 million. It said the change was primarily due to Pikka, citing a delay commissioning the field's seawater treatment plant and two curtailments.
Pikka briefly reached rates above 80,000 barrels a day before the quarter ended Sept. 30, Santos said. Output was then curtailed after a weather event affected the seawater plant, which was still starting up. At the end of September, with 15 production wells and six injection wells online, Pikka was producing about 69,000 barrels a day, up from about 23,000 at the end of June.
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