New POS-GRIP Customer eni Australia

RNS Number : 2795I

Plexus Holdings Plc

02 July 2013

 



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

2 July 2013

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

New Customer eni Australia POS-GRIP Rental Contract Win

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 been awarded its first contract with eni Australia Limited ('eni Aus'), a subsidiary of eni S.p.A, a world leading energy company based in Italy.  The contract is for the supply of 10,000psi POS-GRIP wellhead technology with mudline casing support and services, initially for one exploration well offshore Australia. The contract is estimated to be worth £280,000, with revenues commencing in September 2013, and includes an option for the continuing use of Plexus wellhead and mudline equipment which is anticipated to lead to a further three wells with an additional estimated value of £1 million.

This contract falls within the Plexus' licensing, manufacturing, distribution, and agency agreement with Breda Energia S.p.A ('Breda'), a provider of specialist products and services to the oil and gas sector worldwide (see press release 05.12.11). The agreement granted Breda with exclusive rights to manufacture, rent, sell and service POS-GRIP exploration and production wellheads and other related POS-GRIP products exclusively to eni S.p.A.

Not only is this Plexus' first contract with eni S.p.A, it is the first contract to be secured under its licencing and distribution agreement with Breda; and marks the Company' third contract to be awarded in Australia.

Plexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "This is a significant contract win for Plexus and we believe confirms the licencing and distribution agreement that we signed with Breda as being commercially enhancing for the Company.  We hope to build on our relationship with both eni and Breda, building on Plexus' solid reputation for supplying wellhead equipment with increased safety and technical benefits, and hope this will open up a number of additional sales opportunities for Plexus that have not been previously available, particularly in Europe.

"Moreover, this marks another contract win for Plexus in Australia which is proving to be an important market for the company to grow its footprint in a region that is seeing an increasing level of activity in the oil and gas sector."

**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, 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.  Design process is expected to be completed by mid 2013 calendar year, and will be followed by testing and engineering of a prototype.

To date, POS-GRIP wellhead systems have been used or selected to be used in over 250 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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