Plexus Holdings PLC First Purchase Order from Russian Partner
Monday 3 April 2017
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 first purchase order for its Tersus™- TRT Mudline Suspension System ('MLS') equipment from LLC Gusar (OOO Gusar) Ltd ('Gusar'), the Company's partner in Russia.
The purchase order falls under the exclusive licence agreement ('the Licence Agreement') Plexus signed in January 2016 with Gusar and CJSC Konar (ZAO Konar) ('Konar'), two independent Russian oil and gas equipment manufacturers. Under the terms of the Licence Agreement, Gusar and Konar will supply Plexus' patent protected wellhead and associated equipment to the oil and gas markets of the Russian Federation and the other CIS states (see announcement of 25 January 2016 for further details).
Today's purchase order is for a full MLS system, including hangers, running tools and TA Cap. During jack-up drilling operations, mudline suspension equipment, which is comprised of a series of hangers, transfers the weight of each casing string to the conductor and the sea bed, and provide a means to reconnect to the well for future production. In combination with POS-GRIP® Adjustable Wellhead Systems, which have been used on over 400 wells worldwide by major operators including Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total, the Directors believe that Plexus' Tersus-TRT mudline suspension system is the best possible technical solution for jack-up drilled wells in terms of performance, reliability and safety.
Gusar will use the MLS to demonstrate to Russian operators the benefits and advantages of Plexus' system, which is proven to deliver excellent reliability, superior well integrity, and significant time savings due to the simplicity of the proprietary design and its unique features. These include surface casing riser washout without rotation of the riser; all interfaces being externally testable before running; split cages with optimised stiffness and debris handling which enhances reliability; and the installation and recovery of the TA Cap under full BOP control.
Plexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "This order demonstrates Gusar's ongoing commitment to first supply our best in class wellhead equipment to the huge Russian and CIS markets, and then to manufacture it themselves under licence. We regard Gusar as a long-term partner and believe this initial order will help to raise the awareness of Plexus designed equipment within the Gusar licenced territories, and subsequently lead to further business in what is one of the largest hydrocarbon producing regions in the world.
"When we signed the Licence Agreement with both Gusar and Konar we heralded it as a significant strategic milestone towards delivering on our international expansion plans, and becoming less reliant on the North Sea. By partnering with established local manufacturers and oil service providers, who have existing commercial relationships with key local and international operators, licence agreements can enable us to gain a strategic presence in major markets without having to make significant investment in capital intensive assets such as manufacturing. With this in mind, we continue to talk to potential partners in other target markets around the world, as we look to replicate the success we have historically enjoyed in the North Sea, and in the process, establish our POS-GRIP technology as a new global standard for wellheads and associated equipment."