Well Order Signed with Det norske, Norway

RNS Number : 5425Q

Plexus Holdings Plc

01 March 2016

 

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

1 March 2016

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

Additional Well Order Signed with Det norske - Norway

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 that it has received an additional purchase order ('PO') from Det norske oljeselskap ASA ('Det norske') to supply surface wellhead and mudline equipment services for an exploration well on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, offshore Norway.  The value of this latest order with Det norske is estimated at approximately £0.6 million with revenues expected to commence in July 2016. 

Under the terms of the PO, Plexus will supply its standard pressure 18-3/4" 15M surface wellhead and mudline system. The well will be drilled using the Maersk Interceptor Jackup (XLE) class rig, which is expected to take between 40 and 60 days.  This will be the eighth Det norske well to use Plexus' POS-GRIP wellhead equipment since 2012, highlighting how the Company continues to win repeat business from its blue chip customer base. 

Plexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "What makes this latest order with Det norske particularly encouraging is that it has been awarded at a time when drilling activity in the North Sea and other hydrocarbon regions has dropped off sharply on the back of the volatile oil price environment.  Together with the contracts we were awarded in Oman and Malaysia earlier in the year, we have now won three contracts in the first two months of 2016.   In our view, this demonstrates the established support for our best in class wellhead equipment among blue chip operators, particularly in regions where exploration drilling activity is taking place and where we have long-standing relationships, and also that we will continue to secure market share when exploration drilling activity picks up as it inevitably will. 

"Having been used in over 400 wells around the world, the superior performance, reliability, and safety of our POS-GRIP technology compared to other competing products is proven.   With licensing agreements recently secured for the major Chinese and Russian markets and a hub serving the wider Asian markets in place, we are well placed to replicate internationally the historical success we have had in the North Sea, which has seen Plexus become the dominant supplier of jack-up exploration wellhead equipment. In particular offshore Norway has been and continues to be an important region for us, and I believe that the Norwegian tax allowances associated with exploration drilling play an important part in this.  I am hopeful that the UK government will announce in the upcoming Budget some additional tax incentives for the UK Continental Shelf. Notwithstanding the current challenging trading conditions, we  therefore remain confident that where there is business to be won, Plexus is very well placed to secure it."

**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

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 together with associated equipment and services 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.

To date, POS-GRIP wellhead systems have been used or selected to be used in over 350 oil and gas wells by international companies including ADTI, AGR, Apache Energy Australia, BHP Billiton, BG International, BP, Brunei Shell Petroleum, Cairn Energy, Centrica, ConocoPhillips, Dana Petroleum, Dubai Petroleum, ENI, GDF SUEZ, Global Santa Fe, Maersk, Niko Resources, Petro-Canada Trinidad & Tobago, Premier Oil Norge, Red Sea Petroleum Operating Company, Repsol, RWE, Senergy Limited, Shell China, Shell Egypt, Statoil, Silverstone Energy, Talisman Energy, Total, Tullow Oil, and Wintershall.

Importantly, the Company is focussed on extending its proprietary POS-GRIP 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, the 'Python Subsea Wellhead' 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, Senergy, ADTI and Oil States Industries Inc. The JIP is nearing completion with final qualification testing of all key features of the product under way, and the resultant Python 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 building of a single string Python Subsea Wellhead system prototype commenced in February, and was launched at the SPE Offshore Europe Exhibition and Conference in Aberdeen ('OE2015') in September 2015.

Plexus is an innovative technology company always looking for opportunities to apply its proprietary POS-GRIP friction grip method of engineering to new products both within and outside the oil and gas industry. For example Plexus have recently 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. In addition the Company has 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. The market for permanent plugging and abandonment of wells is increasing in the North Sea and beyond, and could be an important new revenue stream for the Company.

 

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