ConocoPhillips starts up Nuna project early, and under budget

ConocoPhillips started production at its small Nuna project on the Alaska North Slope, the company said Friday, Dec. 20. “The project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget,” the company’s Alaska president, Erec Isaacson said in a press release.

Nuna is expected to produce about 20,000 b/d at peak production, ConocoPhillips has said.

Nuna was an undeveloped deposit in the Kuparuk River field that has been known for some time but developed only recently. The project had been expected to begin production in mid-2025.

Kuparuk River is a mature North Slope field that has been producing since 1981, and Nuna is the first new drill site in more than a decade in the field. The project will add 29 development wells, on-pad infrastructure and pipelines that tie back to the existing Kuparuk River processing facilities.

Drilling started in September and is expected to continue for several years at the new drill site, which is designated as Nuna 3T in the field. It is the 49th drill site built in the Kuparuk River field since production began.

Nuna’s production module was built in Alaska and moved to the North Slope by barge from a fabrication site in Anchorage, in Southcentral Alaska.

North Slope contractors are busy with two larger new projects, ConocoPhillips’ new Willow field and Pikka, being developed by Australia-based Santos, Ltd., but smaller projects like Nuna make a contribution to the state’s economy.

While smaller than Willow and Pikka, “Projects like Nuna create hundreds of jobs in Alaska, contribute to a stable local economy and demonstrate the remarkable resource development potential that Alaska’s older legacy fields still have,” Isaacson said in a statement.

Year-to-date ConocoPhillips has invested more than $2 billion in its Alaska projects, which include Willow and Nuna. Willow is planned for completion and startup in 2029. It will add an estimated 180,000 b/d to Alaska production in the following years.