Badami Changes Hands as APA Acquires Savant Alaska
A map of APA Corporation’s assets in Alaska. Only the Badami Unit is currently producing oil, but exploration prospects have shown promise.
Photo Credit: APA Corporation
The Texas-based parent of a North Slope oil exploration company is becoming a producer as well by acquiring Savant Alaska, operator of the Badami Unit east of Prudhoe Bay. APA Corporation announced an agreement for approximately $70 million in upfront consideration plus additional contingent payments tied to future development of APA’s eastern North Slope position.
Secures Strategic Infrastructure
The acquisition includes approximately 17,000 net acres in the Badami unit, which currently produces approximately 1,500 barrels of oil per day and contains additional undeveloped resource potential. Badami facilities have nameplate production capacity of approximately 40,000 barrels of oil per day. In addition to accommodation facilities, a grind-and-inject system, barge landing and wharf facilities, runway access, gravel resources, and other field infrastructure, APA is acquiring the Nutaaq Pipeline, which can transport approximately 80,000 barrels of oil per day from Badami to the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.
Current Issue
June 2026
“The acquisition of Savant secures control of strategic infrastructure adjacent to our eastern North Slope acreage, enhancing our ability to execute our planned drilling program efficiently,” says APA CEO John J. Christmann IV. “As we continue to appraise and de-risk our resource base, ownership of this infrastructure provides greater flexibility and optionality in future development planning and represents a key step toward unlocking the potential of our position in Alaska.”
The transaction also includes approximately 75,000 net acres in the Grey Owl unit and additional non-unitized acreage adjacent to Badami. Following the acquisition, APA’s position on Alaska’s eastern North Slope will total approximately 487,000 gross acres.
APA Corporation’s subsidiary Apache is the lead developer of the Sockeye-2 well, which encountered a high-quality reservoir last year, in the Lagniappe area between the Badami and Point Thomson units. Apache holds a 50 percent ownership stake alongside Santos subsidiary Oil Search (Alaska) and Lagniappe Alaska, a subsidiary of Armstrong Oil & Gas.
APA has assumed operatorship of the joint venture and plans to conduct a two-well drilling program next winter consisting of one exploration well and one appraisal well. The exploration well will test a new play in the western portion of the acreage. Results from the appraisal well will help define the scale of the Sockeye complex and assess the feasibility of utilizing Badami infrastructure.
Colorado-based Savant was founded in 2006 to invest in the North Slope, and that opportunity arose in 2010 when it took over Badami from BP. The company became a subsidiary of Miller Energy Resources in 2015, but later that year Miller Energy Resources was accused of overstating the value of its Alaska assets and declared bankruptcy in the face of a $5 million federal penalty. Savant has been held by private equity firms Apollo Investment Corporation and Highbridge Principal Strategies since then.
The transaction is expected to close by year-end 2026, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
