3Yr Contract with Leading Oil Services Company AGR

RNS Number : 1559B

Plexus Holdings Plc

28 February 2014

 

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

28 February 2014

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

New 3Yr Contract with Leading Oil Services Company AGR for POS-GRIP Wellhead Technology with an Initial Order in West Africa

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, known for its safety, time and cost saving capabilities, announces it has agreed a new three year contact ('the Contract') with leading drilling and engineering company AGR Well Management Limited ('AGR').  Under the Contract, Plexus will supply both its standard pressure and High Temperature/ High Pressure ('HPHT') POS-GRIP® wellhead technology and mudline services to AGR for oil and gas exploration activities which it carries out on behalf of its customer base of blue chip oil and gas companies. 

Plexus is further pleased to announce that it has already received a first order under the new Contract worth an estimated £400,000 to supply its 10,000psi POS-GRIP equipment for an exploration well in Guinea Bissau, West Africa which AGR will drill on behalf of private Swedish operator Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB ('Svenska').  This will be the first time that a POS-GRIP High Temperature ('HT') annular seal, which is generally used in HPHT systems, is utilised in a standard pressure system, and the selection of Plexus' POS-GRIP technology demonstrates how operators are increasingly electing to use best in class equipment in standard operating environments.  Revenues from this well order are expected to commence calendar Q1 2014. 

Plexus CEO Ben van Bilderbeek said, "We are delighted to be working with AGR again.  As AGR undertakes drilling activity for blue chip oil and gas operators, a number of which have to date not used Plexus' wellhead equipment, we view this Contract as an excellent opportunity to introduce the significant performance, safety and cost benefits of our best in class POS-GRIP wellhead equipment to a wider customer base.  The Svenska well order, the first under the Contract with AGR provides a readymade example.  Not only is Svenska a new end user of Plexus' equipment, this well also provides a foothold in a new country for us, Guinea Bissau, and in the process further strengthens our position in West Africa, where we have previously worked in Cameroon. 

"We are therefore hopeful that the new Contract with AGR will lead to other opportunities, namely the potential requirement for additional equipment and the introduction to other operators in the region.  Our focus remains on building Plexus' reputation within the oil and gas industry as a supplier of best in class equipment, in terms of operational performance and safety.  In this respect we continue to gain traction both with new customers and in new territories."

**ENDS**

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

Ben van Bilderbeek	Plexus Holdings PLC	Tel: [phone]
Graham Stevens	Plexus Holdings PLC	Tel: [phone]
Derrick Lee	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Alan Stewart	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Felicity Edwards	St Brides Media & Finance Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Frank Buhagiar	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. Royal Dutch Shell, Wintershall, Maersk, Tullow Oil, ENI, Oil States Industries Inc., TOTAL and the UK entity of the world's largest offshore drilling company have joined the initiative to date. 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. The design process has now been completed, and prototype testing is due for completion mid 2014.

To date, POS-GRIP wellhead systems have been used or selected to be used in over 300 oil and gas wells by international companies including AGR, Apache Energy Australia, BHP Billiton, BG International, Bowleven plc, BP, Brunei Shell Petroleum, Cairn Energy, Centrica, ConocoPhillips, Dana Petroleum, 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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