Plexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil equipment & services
23 May 2013
Plexus Holdings PLC ('Plexus' or 'the Company')
Additional £1 million Well Order from Gaz de France Suez
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 it has received a purchase order worth circa £1 million from Gaz de France Suez E&P UK Ltd ('GDF'), a leading oil and gas company, to supply its POS-GRIP High Pressure High Temperature ('HP/HT') wellhead system for exploration activities in the UK North Sea. Revenue from this order has recently commenced.
The new purchase order forms part of an existing contract with GDF, as announced on 8 August 2011. The purchase order is for the supply of the Company's POS-GRIP Twin Stack 13-5/8" 15M Surface Wellhead System for the Taggart well where drilling has commenced. A second purchase order with a similar value is anticipated for a further well where drilling would be due to start in the last quarter of 2013. The Company has been supplying GDF with its wellhead equipment since 2007, initially in the North Sea and subsequently in the Egyptian region of the Mediterranean Sea.
Plexus CEO Ben van Bilderbeek said, "These new purchase orders further cement our dominant position in the provision of HP/HT wellhead equipment in the North Sea, an area enjoying a significant pick-up in investment levels and drilling activity. GDF is yet another blue chip customer that has awarded Plexus repeat business, an endorsement of the best in class qualities of our proprietary wellhead equipment in terms of performance, durability and safety. The exceptional track record of our technology has seen us increasingly win business in other areas of the world, notably West Africa and Asia. We are highly confident we can replicate our success in the North Sea and establish Plexus as the leading supplier of wellhead equipment on a global basis and, in the process, generate substantial value for shareholders."
**ENDS**
For further information please visit www.posgrip.com or contact:
Ben van Bilderbeek |
Plexus Holdings PLC |
Tel: 020 7795 6890 |
Graham Stevens |
Plexus Holdings PLC |
Tel: 020 7795 6890 |
Jon Fitzpatrick |
Cenkos Securities PLC |
Tel: 020 7397 8900 |
Ken Fleming |
Cenkos Securities PLC |
Tel: 0131 220 6939 |
Felicity Edwards |
St Brides Media & Finance Ltd |
Tel: 020 7236 1177 |
Frank Buhagiar |
St Brides Media & Finance Ltd |
Tel: 020 7236 1177 |
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.
