Majors Join Plexus' Subsea Wellhead Project

RNS Number : 6350F

Plexus Holdings Plc

19 June 2012

 



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

19 June 2012

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

ENI and Oil States join Plexus and five other major oil and gas companies in the development of the new safer POS-GRIP 'HGSS™' Subsea Wellhead

Plexus Holdings PLC, the AIM quoted oil and gas engineering services business and owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP® method of wellhead engineering, announces that Eni S.p.A, the Italian oil and gas major, and Oil States Industries Inc. a subsidiary of Oil States International Inc., a leading USA manufacturer of capital equipment,  have both signed up as additional consulting partners to Plexus' Joint Industry Project ('JIP') to develop and commercialise a new and safer subsea wellhead, utilising Plexus' patented POS-GRIP technology. 

This follows previous news releases dated 21 November 2011 and 6 January 2012 announcing that Maersk Oil North Sea UK Ltd, Shell International Exploration and Production B.V., Wintershall Noordzee B.V., SafeKick Ltd, Tullow Oil, and the UK entity of the world's largest offshore drilling company all signed up as consulting partners to the JIP. 

Initiated in October 2010, the JIP is focussed on developing a new subsea wellhead, the HGSS™, to address key technical issues and requirements highlighted by regulators following the Gulf of Mexico incident in April 2010.  All members of the JIP will be contributing to the design and engineering process with the intention that they potentially become end-users and commercial partners once the wellhead has been fully built, tested and commercialised.  The project is anticipated to take between 18-24 months from the initiation date at a cost of approximately £1.5m to £2m.  Any intellectual property generated by the project will be owned by Plexus.

Plexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "Our JIP subsea wellhead initiative is gaining considerable momentum.  Not only is the project progressing well and according to plan but it continues to attract the active participation of major companies in the oil and gas sector.  I am delighted to welcome ENI and Oil States to the Project and look forward to working closely with them as we continue to develop a new, fit for purpose, HGSS Subsea Wellhead that addresses key safety and performance requirements in a rapidly changing oil and gas industry. 

"Recent well control incidents around the world have highlighted the need for robust, high performance, subsea wellheads in oil and gas operations, particularly in extreme and hostile environments.   Specific functionality is required such as instant casing hanger lockdown, the ability to monitor sustained casing pressure ('SCP') and then enable remedial action and bleed off capability. We also, importantly, champion the need for wellhead equipment to be designed so that casing and tubing hangers match the standards that are required for casing and tubing couplings. Plexus, with its patented and proven POS-GRIP technology, is ideally suited to rise to the challenge and, increasingly, this is being recognised by leading industry players as evidenced by today's news.  This is a tremendously exciting time for Plexus.  In addition to the JIP, we are the leading specialised wellhead services company within the HP/HT arena in the North Sea and we are looking to repeat our dominant position in the wider international arena.   With all this in mind, I look forward to updating the market on our progress in due course."

Further Information

Key features that Plexus is looking to incorporate into its new POS-GRIP HGSS subsea wellhead design include:

·    18-3/4" full bore system, rated to 15,000 psi 350 deg F

·    Upgradeable to 20,000 psi, 450 deg F

·    4,000,000 lbs 'instant' casing hanger lockdown capacity

·    Avoidance of acknowledged problems associated with use of lock down rings

·    Annulus monitoring and bleed-off capability to address sustained casing pressure ('SCP') situations, with diagnostic and remedial capability

·    Ability to open and reseal the casing annulus to enable remedial cement job procedures

·    Rigid metal annular seal technology qualified to match the standards for premium casing couplings

·    Meeting the requirements of API 17D/ISO 13628-4, recently provided additional operator requirements, and Plexus 'life cycle' testing

**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]
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 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.

Perhaps most importantly the POS-GRIP subsea wellhead design will be designed so that casing and tubing hangers match the standards required for casing and tubing couplings in the system which is currently not the case for conventional wellhead designs, both for subsea and platform/land. This design initiative will for the first time provide the industry with a truly 'premium' wellhead that would no longer be considered the 'weak link' in the well.  Development is expected to be completed by September 2013 calendar year in time for the Aberdeen Oil Show.

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, 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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