Alaska regulators investigate Oliktok Pipeline fees for 2026 rates

A few tenths of a cent more per thousand cubic feet on Oliktok Pipeline may sound minor, but on the North Slope it can change the cost of producing the next barrel. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska opened docket P-26-006 after Oil Search (Alaska), LLC asked for a review of Oliktok Pipeline Company’s 2026 charges, with a hearing set for May 14.

The line at issue is not a side road in the system. Oliktok begins near Skid 50 by Trans-Alaska Pipeline System Pump Station 1 and runs to the Kuparuk River Unit Central Processing Facility, carrying gas that other fields use to support oil production. The pipeline is 16 inches in diameter, is listed as active under CPCN 334, and is owned by ConocoPhillips Alaska.

Public tariff filings show Oliktok’s proposed 2026 rates at $0.346 per thousand standard cubic feet for the Gas Hydrates Project, $0.580 for Kuparuk River Unit CPF #1 and $0.555 for the gas spur pipeline. That is up from 2025 levels of $0.343 for the Gas Hydrates Project and $0.559 for Kuparuk River Unit CPF #1. The 2024 settlement that set the framework for those charges used a variable-rate method tied to operating expenses, depreciation, amortization of construction costs, required return on pipeline assets and any over- or under-collections from the prior year.

The stakes run west to Pikka. Oil Search needs Oliktok access to secure gas for the project because Pikka does not have enough gas of its own for turbine fuel and reinjection. Santos has said Pikka Phase 1 was almost 90% complete as of August 2025, was targeted to start up in 2026 and was designed for as much as 80,000 barrels of oil per day. In a field development built around tight margins and high logistics costs, even a small change in pipeline access fees can alter the economics of future drilling, workover activity and support services.

That is why the case reaches beyond a tariff sheet. Oliktok’s gas line helps connect mature Prudhoe Bay production with newer development farther west, and the price of that connection can shape how quickly projects move, how much contractor work follows them and how much revenue flows back to the state and North Slope Borough.