Plexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil equipment & services
3 June 2014
Plexus Holdings PLC ('Plexus' or 'the Company')
Secured Second Well Contract with Maersk Oil for £1.4M
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 that further to the Company's first time contract win with Maersk Oil Danish Business Unit totalling £1.1million announced on 12 February 2014, the option granted under the contract has now been converted to a firm order to supply Maersk Oil Danish Business Unit its POS-GRIP wellhead system and mudline services for an additional well. The value of the additional order is estimated at approximately £1.4 million with revenues expected to commence in October 2014.
Under the terms of the option, Plexus will supply its 18-3/4" POS-GRIP 15,000psi surface wellhead and mudline systems for use on a standard pressure well for exploration activities in the central Danish North Sea.
Plexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "We are delighted to have secured this second well order with Maersk Oil's Danish Business Unit which I believe further highlights the commercial strength of our POS-GRIP wellhead best in class technology for both standard and more challenging high pressure/high temperature exploration activities.
"As we continue to strengthen our foothold in the North Sea market with contract wins such as these, we are also highly committed to expanding both our geographic and application reach. This is evidenced by a number of high profile contracts this year which has seen us win new business in China, utilising our new Singapore and Malaysian hubs, Northern Africa and West Africa. In addition, our expansion into subsea is progressing well. Our pioneering joint industry project aimed at developing a new and safer subsea wellhead to address key technical issues and requirements highlighted by the Gulf of Mexico incident in 2010, recently gained its eighth major oil and gas company member. The final design stage is nearing completion and manufacturing of test fixtures is underway with full system testing expected to be completed in Q3 2014. From here the JIP will move to building the prototype and then a first time installation. We look forward to updating shareholders on our progress as we build Plexus into the wellhead provider of choice and necessity across exploration, production and subsea applications."
**ENDS**
For further information please visit www.posgrip.com or contact:
Ben van Bilderbeek |
Plexus Holdings PLC |
Tel: 020 7795 6890 |
Graham Stevens |
Plexus Holdings PLC |
Tel: 020 7795 6890 |
Derrick Lee |
Cenkos Securities PLC |
Tel: 0131 220 9100 |
Alan Stewart |
Cenkos Securities PLC |
Tel: 0131 220 9774 |
Felicity Edwards |
St Brides Media & Finance Ltd |
Tel: 020 7236 1177 |
Frank Buhagiar |
St Brides Media & Finance Ltd |
Tel: 020 7236 1177 |
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 Oil, 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.