First Purchase Order from Russian Partner

RNS Number : 2392B

Plexus Holdings Plc

03 April 2017

 

Plexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil Equipment & Services

3 April 2017

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

First Purchase Order from Russian Partner

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 it has received a first purchase order for its Tersus™- TRT Mudline Suspension System ('MLS') equipment from LLC Gusar (OOO Gusar) Ltd ('Gusar'), the Company's partner in Russia. 

The purchase order falls under the exclusive licence agreement ('the Licence Agreement') Plexus signed in January 2016 with Gusar and CJSC Konar (ZAO Konar) ('Konar'), two independent Russian oil and gas equipment manufacturers.  Under the terms of the Licence Agreement, Gusar and Konar will supply Plexus' patent protected wellhead and associated equipment to the oil and gas markets of the Russian Federation and the other CIS states (see announcement of 25 January 2016 for further details). 

Today's purchase order is for a full MLS system, including hangers, running tools and TA Cap. During jack-up drilling operations, mudline suspension equipment, which is comprised of a series of hangers, transfers the weight of each casing string to the conductor and the sea bed, and provide a means to reconnect to the well for future production.  In combination with POS-GRIP® Adjustable Wellhead Systems, which have been used on over 400 wells worldwide by major operators including Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total, the Directors believe that Plexus' Tersus-TRT mudline suspension system is the best possible technical solution for jack-up drilled wells in terms of performance, reliability and safety.

Gusar will use the MLS to demonstrate to Russian operators the benefits and advantages of Plexus' system, which is proven to deliver excellent reliability, superior well integrity, and significant time savings due to the simplicity of the proprietary design and its unique features.  These include surface casing riser washout without rotation of the riser; all interfaces being externally testable before running; split cages with optimised stiffness and debris handling which enhances reliability; and the installation and recovery of the TA Cap under full BOP control.

Plexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "This order demonstrates Gusar's ongoing commitment to first supply our best in class wellhead equipment to the huge Russian and CIS markets, and then to manufacture it themselves under licence.  We regard Gusar as a long-term partner and believe this initial order will help to raise the awareness of Plexus designed equipment within the Gusar licenced territories, and subsequently lead to further business in what is one of the largest hydrocarbon producing regions in the world. 

"When we signed the Licence Agreement with both Gusar and Konar we heralded it as a significant strategic milestone towards delivering on our international expansion plans, and becoming less reliant on the North Sea.  By partnering with established local manufacturers and oil service providers, who have existing commercial relationships with key local and international operators, licence agreements can enable us to gain a strategic presence in major markets without having to make significant investment in capital intensive assets such as manufacturing.  With this in mind, we continue to talk to potential partners in other target markets around the world, as we look to replicate the success we have historically enjoyed in the North Sea, and in the process, establish our POS-GRIP technology as a new global standard for wellheads and associated equipment."

**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]
Nick Tulloch	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Derrick Lee	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Frank Buhagiar	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Isabel de Salis	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]

NOTES:

Plexus Holdings PLC is an AIM traded oil and gas engineering and services business, which supplies wellhead and mudline suspension equipment together with associated equipment and services for exploration and production applications.  Based in Aberdeen, with a presence in London, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and 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.

To date, POS-GRIP® wellhead systems have been used in over 400 oil and gas wells by numerous international companies.  In particular, the technology has advantages in High Pressure/High Temperature (HPHT) and Extreme HPHT (X-HPHT) oil and gas environments, for which there is growing global demand and where Plexus is being increasingly recognised as the supplier of choice.  Plexus has recently successfully completed the supply of an X-HPHT exploration wellhead to Total for the Solaris well which is believed to be the deepest and highest pressure well ever drilled in the North Sea.

Plexus is also extending its technology into an increasing number of other applications:

·    In September 2015 it launched a prototype of the 'Python™ Subsea Wellhead' developed as part of a Joint Industry Project in collaboration with BG, Royal Dutch Shell, Wintershall, Maersk, TOTAL, Tullow Oil, ENI, LR Senergy, Transocean and Oil States Industries Inc. 

·    It recently also completed a JIP in conjunction with Maersk to develop a downhole HPHT Tieback connector which for the first time allows the reconnection of production casing to HPHT exploration and production wells

·    It developed and qualified a new product called POS-SET Connector™ which is designed to re-establish a connection onto rough conductor casing previously cut above the seabed to facilitate tieback or abandonment operations

Having proven its POS-GRIP technology in the niche jack-up exploration market Plexus is now focused on extending its applications into the much larger multi-billion dollar land and platform production well market as well as actively pursuing a first time use of the new Python subsea wellhead into the important subsea sector. Such strategic initiatives will be pursued both organically and with trading partners and licencees.

 

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