Slope renaissance
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Extending production in existing fields; eyeing horizon for new plays
Steve Sutherlin Petroleum News
Leaders from three of Alaska's top North Slope oil and gas companies -- ConocoPhillips, Hilcorp and Santos -- spoke at the AOGA 2025 conference Aug. 27 in Anchorage, each updating their company's role in the Renaissance of exploration and production currently taking place on the Slope.
ConocoPhillips is continuing to invest some $1 billion per year in projects in its base business, said Donald Allan, ConocoPhillips asset development manager.
"Starting with our legacy business here in Kuparuk and Alpine, you see a combination of opportunities drilling from new pads and from existing pads," Allan said.
At Nuna -- a new drill site on the west side of the Kuparuk area, ConocoPhillips achieved first oil ahead of schedule and under budget in December of last year.
Kuparuk's West Sak development continues to deliver.
"We have about 110 wells with a strong record of production performance, Allan said. "In 2024, we drilled four wells -- the two producers are two of the top five producers in the state of Alaska."
"Next project in Kuparuk is the Coyote project; that's the Coyote Reservoir up in the northwest corner of the Kuparuk River unit and we started drilling that in 2025," he said adding that the 2025 drilling program continues to develop the "major project."
Willow is a new project in the National Petroleum Reserve--Alaska.
"This is a large project, significant investment for the company," Allan said, adding that
2025 was a peak construction season there.
"We had more than 10,000 folks on the slope progressing a tremendous amount of civil and infrastructure work," Allan said. "The Willow team continues to hit all of the key milestones, and the project remains on schedule for 2029 first oil."
In 2024, Willow's operations center modules were successfully fabricated, and safely delivered to the North Slope, he said. They were transported to the Willow location over ice roads through the winter season to establish the Willow forward operating base.
ConocoPhillips can now work year-round through the summer season during construction at the Willow site, taking advantage of newly established gravel roads and paths, Allan said. "Engineering and fabrication of the modules continues with delivery expected to the North Slope in 2027, and in 2027 we also expect to start up the pre-drilling," he said.
There are opportunities beyond Willow.
"You can expect us to follow our same disciplined development approach," he said. "We'll continue to look for ways to leverage our existing infrastructure and gravel for low capital intensity tieback projects where they exist."
"We have a track record of drawing resource and surrounding our production facilities," Allan said. "For example, Kuparuk is more than double its original estimated size and Alpine has more than triple its original estimated size -- and we're one of the largest leaseholders in the federal and state areas in Alaska."
Hilcorp: new well at Point Thomson "I'll start off with the Point Thompson - on the east side of the North Slope -- it's quite a bit away from the main infrastructure on the North Slope and Prudhoe Bay and the greater Prudhoe Bay Area," said Daniel Donovan, Hilcorp Asset Team Leader. "Exxon Mobil operated this asset up until 2022 when we took over as operator, and then within two years we sanctioned in 2024 the first drilled well in Point Thompson since 2017."
Donovan said Hilcorp will end up spending more than $180 million by the time the Point Thomson well is drilled, completed, and online in 2026.
"It's a big logistical challenge as much as a subsurface challenge; it requires a certain rig that can drill a challenging well; it requires operating during barging season; during ice road season; across multiple years," he said. "We did identify a rig, Doyon 15 to go out and drill this well. That rig is currently located on Spy Island in the Nikaitchuq."
It's going to be a transformative well for Point Thompson, which currently makes a little over 4000 barrels of oil per day, Donovan said. Hilcorp expects some 6000 bpd from the new well, possibly doubling the field's current production to more than 10,000 bpd -- anticipated that in the second half of 2026.
Hilcorp is planning new projects in the west part of the Prudhoe Bay unit.
Project Taiga will consist of 22 producers and 29 injectors, to source wells, disposal wells and when brought online, 25,000 bpd in Phase 1, Donovan said, adding, "We expect to kick that off in 2027."
"There's a second phase, which would be right after we complete phase one, we call Greenfield Schrader development," Donovan said. "We're going to have to drill 51 wells; we're going to construct all the facilities from the ground up; we will have at the end of phase two, potentially over 40,000 barrels a day coming online."
"The results we've seen at Milne Point have simply been amazing," he said, adding that after acquiring Milne Point, Hilcorp brought on Mouse Pad and Raven Pad, which are major pad developments like Project Taiga.
"We've tripled field production at Milne Point since we've taken over as operator," he said. "We've invested $2.5 billion in Milne Point so far.
Santos: All major equipment now onsite Pikka "Today, the big news that we have today is that we now have all the major equipment we need for Pikka phase one on the North Slope," said Pete Laliberte, Santos vice president business development.
"This is our core development area, so when we sanctioned Pikka phase one, we sanctioned it in this core development area with our partner Repsol, a fantastic partner as we've moved along."
Laliberte said his colleague Mark Ireland likes to say, 'in this core area we have three Pikkas.'
"I think that we've got the one Pikka development that we're doing right now, but we also have a unit called Horseshoe and a unit called Quokka," Laliberte said.
"In Quokka we're drawing another appraisal well this winter and those we see as having the potential for two more Pikkas."
Santos has much more to come on the Slope.
Pikka Phase 1 is going to be developed on some 17,000 acres of land, 1% of the total Santos leasehold on the Slope, Laliberte said, adding, "So we have a huge amount of running room and this is exactly what our subsurface team is looking at."
"We've also got a major discovery in Lagniappe in the eastern North Slope and that's with our partners, APA corporation and Armstrong," he said. "And then finally we've got a big NPR position -- probably a little bit longer term."
Laliberte said Santos is more than 91% of the way to first oil.
"It has been quite a journey and that that journey will ultimately result with the production from Phase 1 to 80,000 barrels a day," he said.
Santos is ahead of the curve at Pikka, it has announced that first oil will be in first quarter of 2026 rather than midyear as originally anticipated.
"We've been drilling since June of 2023, so after starting in June 2023 we're on the 22nd well -- now this is going to be the longest -- about 27,000 feet," he said. "So really an incredible achievement."
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