Santos has confirmed the start-up of seawater injection at the Nanushuk Drillsite-B within the Pikka onshore oilfield on Alaska's North Slope, with injection currently running at around 40,000 barrels per day in support of the ramp-up towards a plateau of approximately 80,000bopd, according to a project profile published on 19 September 2026 (Offshore Technology).
Key takeaways
- Santos confirmed the start-up of seawater injection at the Nanushuk Drillsite-B within the Pikka project in September 2026, with current injection running at around 40,000bopd (Offshore Technology).
- Phase one is currently producing approximately 23,000bopd gross and is progressing towards plateau production of approximately 80,000bopd (Offshore Technology).
- The associated infrastructure at Pikka includes a seawater treatment plant, a remote operations centre and pipelines tying into existing local infrastructure (Offshore Technology).
- The floating seawater treatment plant has a reported capacity of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), with US Army Corps of Engineers construction approval granted in November 2020 (Offshore Technology).
- Santos and Repsol reached final investment decision on the $2.6bn Pikka phase one project in August 2022, with first oil achieved in May 2026 and continuous production operations starting in June 2026 (Offshore Technology).
What happened at Pikka
Pikka is an onshore oilfield on the North Slope of Alaska, located in the North Slope Borough approximately 84km west of Deadhorse and 10km from Nuiqsut, and lying to the west of the ConocoPhillips-operated Kuparuk River Unit oilfield (Offshore Technology). Australian operator Santos holds a 51% interest following its December 2021 acquisition of Oil Search, with Spanish major Repsol holding the remaining 49% (Offshore Technology). Armstrong Oil and Gas and Repsol originally made the discovery with the Qugruk 3 well in 2013, with Oil Search appraising the Nanushuk reservoir in 2019 through the Pikka B and C wells (Offshore Technology).
The $2.6bn phase one development reached final investment decision in August 2022 and is designed to bring around 400 million barrels of gross proven and probable reserves into production, with a further 600mbbl of gross 2C resource expected to support a phased expansion (Offshore Technology). The field achieved first oil in May 2026 and moved into continuous production operations in June 2026, with the first 450,000-barrel crude export from phase one loaded onto the Polar Resolution at the Valdez Marine Terminal in August 2026 for delivery to the US West Coast refining system (Offshore Technology).
On the project profile published 19 September 2026, Santos confirmed the start-up of seawater injection at the Nanushuk Drillsite-B, with current injection running at around 40,000bopd, intended to support reservoir pressure and underpin the ramp-up towards approximately 80,000bopd (Offshore Technology).
What the seawater treatment plant looks like
The reported seawater treatment plant capacity is 100,000bpd, equivalent to about 15,900 m³/day, with the design featuring a barge-mounted unit measuring 145m long, 56.2m wide and 8m high (Offshore Technology). VME Process was selected in April 2021 to provide an American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)-classified bespoke barge for the plant (Offshore Technology), with Kuna Engineering delivering structural engineering support and PND Engineers completing civil and structural design work covering 37 miles of gravel roads, gravel pads, drainage culverts, the seawater treatment plant dock and bridges (Offshore Technology). The US Army Corps of Engineers approved construction of the seawater treatment plant in November 2020 (Offshore Technology).
For a buyer or engineer reading across to the produced-water and injection-water class of plant, the treatment train upstream of injection typically runs coarse screening → multimedia or cartridge filtration → deoxygenation (gas-stripping or vacuum towers) → sulfate-removal (nanofiltration) → biocide dosing → filtration polishing, with DAF used where oil-in-water carryover must be cut before the filters. The start-up of seawater injection at Pikka is a feedwater-supply event, not a discharge or tertiary upgrade, so the procurement signal is on the intake, pumping and deaeration skid side of the train rather than on a downstream biological or DAF stage. In a buyer's enquiry, that translates as flow in m³/day (≈15,900 m³/day nameplate), target dissolved oxygen typically below 20 ppb at the wellhead (general industry range, not from the sources), and ABS- or DNV-classed barge or skid packaging for Arctic or remote-pad duty. For utility and industrial teams evaluating the Oil sector, the lesson is that large North American onshore developments are being engineered with floating, modular, classed water-handling packages rather than stick-built concrete plants, which shortens site work and changes how spares, hook-up and class survey are procured. Procurement leads sizing the next intake or produced-water polishing package can use the Pikka plant as a reference for the barge envelope (≈145m × 56m × 8m), the ABS classification requirement and the multi-contractor split between process OEM, structural engineer and civil designer.
FAQ
What triggered the latest Pikka announcement?
Santos confirmed the start-up of seawater injection at the Nanushuk Drillsite-B within Pikka in September 2026, with injection running at around 40,000bopd to support the ramp-up towards a plateau of approximately 80,000bopd (Offshore Technology).
How big is the Pikka seawater treatment plant in standard engineering units?
The reported design capacity is 100,000bpd, which converts to roughly 15,900 m³/day, on a barge-mounted plant measuring 145m long, 56.2m wide and 8m high (Offshore Technology). Comparable intake and deaeration packages for remote-pad duty typically fall in the 10,000–25,000 m³/day range (general industry range, not from the sources).
Who supplied the barge and design for the Pikka seawater treatment plant?
VME Process was selected in April 2021 to provide an ABS-classed bespoke barge, with Kuna Engineering delivering structural engineering support and PND Engineers completing civil and structural design for 37 miles of roads, pads, culverts, the dock and bridges (Offshore Technology).
What treatment stages should a buyer expect on a seawater injection package like Pikka?
For this class of feedwater plant the typical train is screening → media or cartridge filtration → deoxygenation → sulfate removal or biocide dosing → polishing filtration, with Daf Flotation Systems used upstream where residual oil must be knocked down before the filters (general industry range, not from the sources). Engineered packages for related produced-water duty are covered in our guide on effluent treatment plant design and procurement and on biological train selection for downstream polishing.
