Pikka '25 development plan and 5-yr unit term extension approved
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
On Nov. 11, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas received the proposed 2025 Pikka Unit, or PKU. Plan of Development from Oil Search (Alaska) LLC, a Santos company. In addition to the POD, Oil Search requested a five-year extension to the unit term for the PKU through June 30, 2030. Both were approved on Dec. 31 in a letter to Oil Search executive Mark Ireland.
PKU, comprised of both state of Alaska oil and gas leases and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. oil and gas leases, was formed June 18, 2015, and expanded Sept.10, 2024, to include a total of 97,385.47 acres. On April 23, 2020, the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources approved an extension of the PKU term until June 1, 2025. The PKU is now under development with surface construction in progress and ongoing drilling of development wells. In the 2024 POD, Oil Search committed to drill six to eight wells in the 2024 period from Feb. 1, 2024, through Jan. 31, 2025. Construction activities for field infrastructure would continue throughout 2024 to support production commencing in 2026.
During the 2024 POD period, Oil Search drilled and completed 10 wells. The wells that have been drilled in the Pikka unit to date as part of the Phase 1 program are awaiting connection to the Nanushuk Processing Facility, or NPF, to commence oil production in 2026. Additionally, Oil Search installed more than 5,000 vertical support members and 40-plus miles of pipelines across the PKU, Southern Miluveach Unit, and Kuparuk River Unit.
Gravel dock installation was also completed to support installation of the Seawater Treatment Plant, or STP, facility.
2025 commitments In the 2025 POD period of Feb. 1, 2025, through Jan. 31, 2026, Oil Search commits to continuing the Phase 1 scope of Pikka development, which includes the following facilities and infrastructure work:
*Installation of the NPF module;
*Installation of remaining pipelines along all pipeline routes;
*Continued work on the grind and inject and STP facilities;
*Import and export pipeline work to enable oil sales, seawater import for pressure maintenance, and fuel gas import; and
*Completion of work on the Nanushuk Operation Pad.
Finally, Oil Search further commits to drilling between six to eight development wells within the PKU.
--KAY CASHMAN
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