Tullow Oil joins Plexus Subsea Wellhead Project

RNS Number : 0867V

Plexus Holdings Plc

06 January 2012

 



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

6 January 2012

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

Tullow Oil plc joins Plexus and four 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 Tullow Oil plc, a leading independent oil and gas explorer and producer, has signed up as an additional consulting partner to Plexus' Joint Industry Project ('JIP') to develop and commercialise a new and safer subsea wellhead, utilising Plexus' patented POS-GRIP technology.  This follows the news release dated 21 November 2011 announcing that Maersk Oil North Sea UK Ltd, Shell International Exploration and Production B.V., Wintershall Noordzee B.V., the UK entity of the world's largest offshore drilling company and SafeKick Ltd had 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™, which will be designed to address key technical issues and requirements highlightedby regulators following the Gulf of Mexico incident in April 2010.  The JIP will see key industry members contributing to the design and engineering process with the intention that they become end-users once the wellhead has been fully built, tested and commercialised.  The project is anticipated to take between 18-24 months 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, "Tullow Oil's involvement in the JIP is another major endorsement of our new subsea wellhead initiative and of our team's ability to design and develop pioneering wellhead technology in response to the rapidly changing needs of the oil and gas industry.  Well control incidents around the world have highlighted the critical function of a wellhead in subsea oil and gas operations and the importance of seeking Best Available and Safest Technologies ('BAST').  The new HGSS Subsea Wellhead is being developed to address key safety and performance functions, and we believe will become the BAST available for subsea operations and, in-turn, become the industry standard.  

"Tullow Oil is recognised as one of the largest independent exploration and production companies in Europe and is a major participant in the subsea sector.  With this in mind we look forward to working with Tullow, and the other major oil companies that have already joined the JIP over the next two years.  Discussions with other international oil and gas operators regarding their joining the JIP continue.  In the meantime our focus is on getting the project fully underway and to this end, we are currently finalising the composition of our dedicated subsea development and engineering team.  We look forward to providing updates on our progress."

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]

 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.  Field trials of HGSS are targeted for deployment Q3 2012. 

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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