?1.7m HP/HT contract with Gaz de France Suez E& P

RNS Number : 8928L

Plexus Holdings Plc

08 August 2011

 



Plexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil equipment & services

8 August 2011

Plexus Holdings PLC ('Plexus' or 'the Company')

£1.7 million HP/HT contract with Gaz de France Suez E& P Ltd

Plexus Holdings PLC, the AIM quoted oil and gas engineering services business and owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP® friction-grip method of wellhead engineering, is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with Gaz de France Suez E& P Ltd ('GDF'), a leading oil and gas company, to supply its POS-GRIP High Pressure High Temperature ('HP/HT') wellhead system for exploration activities in the UK North Sea.  The value of the contract is worth approximately £1.7 million with revenues expected to start within the next three months. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Plexus is supplying GDF with its HP/HT 15,000 psi wellhead system with mudline suspension system for exploration activities in the UK North Sea for two wells, Faraday and Jacqui.  Since 2007, the Company has secured a number of contracts from GDF, initially in the North Sea and later in the Egyptian region of the Mediterranean Sea.  

Plexus CEO Ben van Bilderbeek said, "Although Plexus is expanding its technology into the subsea arena, our main cash flow driver continues to be the rental of HP/HT wellheads in the most challenging applications in the Jack-up drilling market.  This new project for GDF in the North Sea is evidence of the trend by operating companies to tighten safety standards and manage costs.  Compared to conventional designs, POS-GRIP friction grip wellhead equipment is cost-effective, reliable, and provides potential time savings, that can render the service cost neutral, when projects are executed according to plan.  These benefits become even more attractive in an environment where safety considerations remain paramount, and where a new tax regime was recently announced in the UK.   Plexus continues to maintain a steady flow of new contracts, and we anticipate this trend to continue."

**ENDS**

For further information please visit www.posgrip.com or contact:

Ben van Bilderbeek	Plexus Holdings PLC	Tel: [phone]
Graham Stevens	Plexus Holdings PLC	Tel: [phone]
Jon Fitzpatrick	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Ken Fleming	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Felicity Edwards	St Brides Media & Finance Ltd	Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors

Plexus Holdings PLC, which began trading on AIM in December 2005, is an oil and gas engineering and services business, which supplies wellhead and mudline suspension equipment for exploration and production applications.  Based in Aberdeen, with offices in London, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur and a presence in Houston, Texas, it has developed and patented a friction-grip method of engineering for oil and gas field wellheads and connectors, POS-GRIP®, which involves deforming one tubular member against another to effect gripping and sealing. 

The Company plans to accelerate the roll out of POS-GRIP wellhead equipment as a superior alternative to current technology and for it to become the future industry standard for wellhead design.  In particular, the technology has advantages in High Pressure/High Temperature (HP/HT) and Extreme HP/HT (X-HP/HT) oil and gas environments, for which there is growing global demand and where Plexus is being increasingly recognised as the supplier of choice.  Importantly, the Company is focussed on extending its proprietary technology into an increasing number of subsea applications.  In line with this, in March 2011 the Company launched an initiative to develop a new subsea wellhead design, HGSS™, utilising its friction-grip technology in collaboration with key oil and gas operators and service companies.  The HGSS subsea wellhead design will include a combination of key features never before seen in a subsea wellhead which include being rated to 15,000 psi, 4,000,000 pounds of 'instant' casing lockdown capacity, annulus pressure monitoring and access for 'bleed off' capability to address sustained casing pressure ("SCP") issues which are recognised by the API as a serious industry problem, and rigid metal annular seal technology qualified to match the performance of premium casing.  Field trials of HGSS are targeted for deployment Q3 2012. 

To date, POS-GRIP wellhead systems have been used or selected to be used in over 150 oil and gas wells by international companies including Apache Energy Australia, BHP Billiton, BG International, Bowleven plc, BP, Brunei Shell Petroleum, Cairn Energy, Centrica, ConocoPhillips, Dubai Petroleum, GDF SUEZ, Global Santa Fe, Maersk, Niko Resources, Petro-Canada Trinidad & Tobago, Red Sea Petroleum Operating Company, Repsol, RWE, Senergy Limited, Shell Egypt, StatoilHydro, Silverstone Energy, Talisman Energy, Tullow Oil, and Wintershall.

 

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