Santos seeks expanded Nanushuk drillsite footprint in Pikka project

Santos is asking state and federal regulators to let the Nanushuk Drillsite C footprint grow inside the Pikka development, a change that would widen the pad from 18 acres to 20.3 acres and add two pipeline valve pads on either side of the Kachemach River. The filing points to more construction, more field-layout work and more activity around access roads and river crossings even as Pikka has already started producing oil.

Oil Search (Alaska) LLC, a Santos subsidiary, filed the plan-of-operations amendment on May 15 with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas. The modification would also update the access road serving the pad and increase permanent wetland impacts by 3.44 acres, according to the public notice tied to the request. A separate U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notice says the change is intended to accommodate updated safety and logistics needs for operations, drilling and completions work.

The footprint change is small in acreage but large in what it signals on the ground. Pikka Phase 1 has moved from development into production after Santos and Repsol announced first oil in May 2026, and the project is expected to reach a plateau of 80,000 gross barrels a day in the third quarter of 2026. Santos said Phase 1 is designed around a single drill site, an oil processing facility and other infrastructure to support 80,000 barrels of oil per day.

The timing also matters for North Slope residents, subsistence users and contractors who track how far and how fast major industrial projects spread across the coastal plain. The current request says drilling at the expanded location is not expected until late 2027, which means the effects of the change will likely show up first in construction sequencing, traffic on the access road, river-crossing engineering and demand for support work rather than in immediate new production.

Pikka’s buildout has already required a large amount of earthwork and bridge construction. PND Engineers says the development includes about 37 miles of gravel roads, nearly 100 acres of gravel pads, more than 300 drainage culverts and the 530-foot Kachemach Bridge, along with structural design for the Miluveach River crossing and civil work at Oliktok Point. Those kinds of features shape where trucks move, where materials are staged and how seasonal work is organized across the field.

The project has been under construction since Santos took final investment decision in August 2022. In August 2024, Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said the project was nearly 60% complete and had more than 40 miles of pipeline installed. By 2025, Santos said Pikka was more than 90% complete and ahead of schedule. The new Drillsite C request shows that even with first oil underway, the field is still being adjusted well beyond startup, with more work and more infrastructure changes ahead through 2027.