Alaska Pipeline Project

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Alaska Pipeline Project is a proposed oil pipeline in the USA.

Location

The pipeline will run in the North Slope of Alaska, west of Prudhoe Bay.

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Project details

• Operator: originally Oil Search Alaska
• Owner: Santos Ltd. (51%); Repsol (49%)
• Parent company: Santos Ltd. (51%); Repsol (49%)
• Capacity: 120,000 bpd
• Length: 35 miles
• Status: Proposed
• Start year: 2025

The pipeline and Pikka development were originally owned by Oil Search Ltd., but on December 17, 2021, Oil Search Ltd. and Santos Ltd. merged. In 2018, Oil Search Ltd. acquired the project from Colorado-based Armstrong Energy.

Background

In May 2019, Papua New Guinea-based company Oil Search announced it had received a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its Pikka development, which is planned west of Prudhoe Bay. Oil Search has proposed building up to three drill sites, about 25 miles of roads and about 35 miles of pipelines, a central processing facility, two bridges and an operations center with beds for 200 workers. Its project is in an area seen as a new hot spot for oil activity on the western North Slope, with ConocoPhillips also pursuing projects in the region. Oil Search estimates the project could produce about 120,000 bpd.

In March 2020, Oil Search announced that, due to the sudden collapse in global oil prices to below US$30 a barrel forcing it to cut back on capital expenditure by shelving projects around the world, work to begin early oil production at the Pikka project was put on hold, and no further exploration would be carried out.

In May 2021, it was reported that Oil Search is now implementing a phased development approach on a slower timeline, allowing for reduced costs and oil production anticipated by 2024. In February 2021, Oil Search entered the FEED (front-end engineering and design) stage, phase 1 of 3 total; as of August 2021, construction did not appear to have begun.

In September 2021, Oil Search merged with Australia-based Santos Ltd.