Santos has reached a critical milestone in its Pikka Phase 1 project on Alaska’s North Slope with the safe delivery of major processing modules to Oliktok Point, signaling measurable progress toward first oil production, which is anticipated in 2026.
The modules arrived in late July by barge after a complex and coordinated logistics effort that began at Canada’s Hay River Marine Terminal (see map). From there, the cargo traveled 1,086 miles along the Mackenzie River system to the Arctic community of Tuktoyaktuk, before completing the final 380-mile leg across the Beaufort Sea to Alaska.
Additional processing modules are still en route from the Pacific Northwest and were expected to arrive soon. Meanwhile, a seawater treatment plant fabricated in Indonesia, was also towed to the site. Once all components are in place, they will be installed, integrated, and commissioned with existing infrastructure to support oil production.
Santos Managing Director and CEO Kevin Gallagher credited the company’s logistics and engineering teams for advancing the project on an accelerated timeline.
“Our highly capable team that delivered early completion of the pipeline in just two winter seasons, followed by a successful river-lift of key processing modules, has created the opportunity for early startup and production from Pikka,” Gallagher said.
Now nearly 90% complete, Pikka Phase 1 is currently drilling its 21st well. The project, located in the Nanushuk formation, is one of the most significant conventional oil discoveries in the US in three decades, with an estimated 400 million barrels of recoverable oil and a planned daily output of up to 80,000 barrels. That would be an over 20% increase in product to the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, stemming the decline that has occurred over the past decades.
Thanks for this story. Prudhoe Bay was put together by many complex module transport
operations called Sea Lifts. It was easier and cheaper to construct most of the oil field systems in CA and WA, then ship them by barge all the way to Prudhoe Bay. The big lifts were in the 70’s and early 80’s. Unloading the massive modules (some were 10 stories tall and weighed hundreds of tons) at West Dock and Oliktok Docks were an impressive undertaking. Even more impressive was the transporting of these modules from the docks to their final placement sites (sometimes 45 miles distant). Prudhoe Bay and the complex system used to get oil to market is a 20th and 21st Century engineering marvel.
Is this one of the reasons that so many income earning Alaskans have moved in recent years? Where were these mods built?