Senergy Becomes Eighth Major to Join Subsea JIP

RNS Number : 8234A

Plexus Holdings Plc

25 February 2014

 

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

25 February 2014

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

Senergy Becomes Eighth Major to Join POS-GRIP® 'HGSS™' New and Safer Subsea Wellhead Design Development Joint Industry Project

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 Senergy Holdings Limited ('Senergy'), the global-leading energy services provider and a member of the Lloyd's Register Group, has signed up as an additional Consulting Partner to Plexus' on-going 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 announcing that Total E&P Recherche Developpement SAS, Maersk Oil North Sea UK Ltd, Shell International Exploration and Production B.V., Wintershall Noordzee B.V., Tullow Oil, Eni S.p.A, Oil States Industries Inc., and the UK entity of the world's largest offshore drilling company, have all signed up as consulting partners to the JIP. 

The JIP is focussed on developing a new subsea wellhead, HGSS™, to address key technical issues and requirements highlighted by regulators following the Gulf of Mexico incident in April 2010.  The POS-GRIP HGSS subsea wellhead, where current engineering and testing stages are well advanced is designed to be safer, have fewer parts in the well bore than any other competing system, whilst also providing superior sealing and locking down capacities to casing hangers immediately after their installation. A further design and development goal is to provide the ability to monitor and manage subsea annulus pressure, as well as providing a remedial capability; this would be an industry first and include subsea wellhead capabilities that have been sought for many years. 

All members of the JIP have been contributing to the design and engineering process, and it is Plexus' goal that they will become end-users once the wellhead has been fully built, tested and commercialised.  Importantly, all intellectual property generated by the JIP will be owned by Plexus, and will be added to the Company's extensive and unchallenged POS-GRIP patent suite.

Senergy is now a member of the Lloyd's Register Group which further underlines its commitment to technical assurance and asset integrity. Among Senergy's integrated specialist services is its expertise and track record in planning and executing oil and gas wells on behalf of a number of clients internationally, including both major multinational operators and small independents. As such, the company has extensive experience of currently available subsea wellhead products.

In addition to the product specification consulting period currently under way by all members of the JIP, Senergy has also committed to assisting the JIP by providing an installation time and cost comparison study of the POS-GRIP® 'HGSS™' Subsea Wellhead against existing conventional subsea wellhead products.

Plexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "We are naturally delighted to welcome Senergy as the eighth member of our pioneering subsea wellhead joint industry project aimed at developing a new and safer subsea wellhead to resolve key technical issues and requirements highlighted by regulators following the Gulf of Mexico wellhead incident in 2010.  In this regard, we are making excellent progress with our Subsea JIP where we are working alongside major oil and gas companies, illustrating the strong industry support for a new subsea wellhead. To date, the new HGSS Subsea Wellhead design is in the final completion stages, 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 of the prototype and then a first time installation.  

"We believe our entry into the subsea market will not only be a major milestone for the Company, but a transformational leap for the wider oil and gas wellhead industry and we look forward to reporting on developments as the JIP and Subsea Wellhead design progresses."

Willem Boon, Global Business Lead - Wells with Senergy said, "Senergy values industry collaboration which focuses on building upon HSEQ practises as well as increasing efficiency and optimising the success of operations. Therefore we look forward to supporting this innovative new subsea wellhead development and helping to achieve tangible results for the drilling and production sector.

"Through our long-established and successful wells business, which is continuing to grow rapidly around the world, we have a strong track record in delivering specialist integrated services including technical excellence and project management. Our involvement in this project will further heighten our expertise by giving us first-hand knowledge and experience of the HGSS wellhead. We always strive to provide the safest and most efficient equipment for our clients, and involvement in this project will ensure that we fully understand its benefits and how it will benefit our customers when it becomes available."

Further Information

Key features that Plexus and the JIP partners are working towards incorporating into the new POS-GRIP HGSS subsea wellhead design include:

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

Ø Upgradeable to 20,000 psi, 450 deg F

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Senergy:

Established in 2005, Senergy has a global talent pool of more than 700 people across a network of locations in the UK, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Australia, South East Asia and the Americas.

The company delivers fully integrated project and asset development services across the energy industry, and has rapidly emerged as a global leader in diversified energy services through organic growth and a series of acquisitions.

The company's services encompass geosciences, reservoir engineering, geohazard assessment, marine site surveys, rig positioning, wells engineering and operations, production optimisation, reserve and asset evaluation, facilities engineering, project management, power engineering and alternative energy solutions. Senergy also develops and supports innovative software technologies including Interactive Petrophysics™ and Oilfield Data Manager™.

Senergy became a member of the Lloyd's Register (LR) Group in September 2013, following an agreement for LR to take a significant investment in the company.

For more information about Senergy, visit: www.senergyworld.com

**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]
Alan Stewart	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. 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 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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