GBP1.9 Million Well Order

RNS Number : 7468X

Plexus Holdings Plc

24 November 2014

 

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

24 November 2014

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

£1.9 Million Well Order

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, is pleased to announce it has received a purchase order ('PO') from a major oil and gas operator to supply surface wellhead and mudline equipment services for a gas and condensate exploration well in the UK Continental Shelf in the North Sea. The value of the order is estimated at approximately £1.9 million with revenues expected to commence in November 2014.

Under the terms of the contract, which is expected to have a duration of 150 days, Plexus will supply its 18-3/4" 15,000psi High Pressure/High Temperature ('HP/HT') adjustable surface wellhead and mudline casing support systems. Plexus has a long-standing relationship with this client who was the first to use the Company's 18-3/4" 15,000psi HP/HT wellhead on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Plexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "This new order coming on the back of last month's order from BG Group demonstrates that from a dominant position in the HP/HT market, our core wellhead equipment rental business based on our proprietary POS-GRIP technology continues to win repeat business from customers operating in the North Sea.

"In February 2014 the Wood Report highlighted the need for increased investment in the North Sea. In the resultant upcoming Fiscal Review, due to report in December, UK ministers are expected to unveil new HP/HT tax breaks to boost exploration which we hope will act as a positive catalyst for new drilling activity and indeed new business opportunities for Plexus in the region.

"In addition, we are making excellent progress in rolling out our offering outside the North Sea. We have already established an Asian hub with bases in Singapore and Malaysia to pursue opportunities in this highly active region whilst, albeit at an earlier stage, we are exploring ways to expand into the Americas. Having proven the superiority for safety, performance and time saving capabilities of our equipment in the North Sea, we are highly confident we can capitalise on the considerable expansion opportunities that exist globally for our core jack-up exploration rental business, and I look forward to providing further updates on our progress."

**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]
Nick Tulloch	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Felicity Winkles	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, Singapore 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 a Joint Industry Project ('JIP')  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. BG, Royal Dutch Shell, Wintershall, Maersk, TOTAL, Tullow Oil, ENI, Oil States Industries Inc., and the UK entity of the world's largest offshore drilling company have joined the initiative to date as Consulting Partners. The JIP is nearing completion and the resultant 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, and importantly rigid metal annular seal technology qualified to match the performance of premium connectors.  The JIP will also be designing solutions for annulus pressure monitoring and access for 'bleed off' capability to address sustained casing pressure ('SCP') issues which for many years have been recognised by the industry as a serious industry problem. The design process has now been completed, with testing is due for completion end 2014, and the running of a prototype in the field targeted for the second half of 2015.

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 China, Shell Egypt, StatoilHydro, Silverstone Energy, Talisman Energy, Tullow Oil, and Wintershall.

 

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