Plexus eyes Malaysian market

Plexus Holdings PLC, an oil and gas engineering services business, has announced that Plexus Products (Asia) Sdn Bhd (PPA), the company’s joint venture with Integrated Petroleum Services Sdn Bhd (IPS), has secured a local PETRONAS licence to manufacture and supply Plexus’ POS-GRIP wellhead equipment in Malaysia. 

IPS is an upstream support services business to the offshore oil and gas industry in Malaysia and the Asian Pacific region with in-house manufacturing capabilities and is a licensed vendor to PETRONAS. The formation of the JV was previously announced by Plexus on August 13, 2014. Plexus said that, with this licence obtained, PPA will benefit from the strong manufacturing, regional network and relationships of IPS as it looks to manufacture and supply Plexus POS-GRIP rental exploration and production wellhead equipment to the Malaysian market.

According to the press release, the Plexus Board believes that with the PETRONAS licence secured, PPA will augment Plexus’ Singaporean regional HQ and services base and Plexus’ recent licencing agreement with Chinese major Yantai Jereh Oilfield Services Group Co., Ltd, as it looks to expand the supply of its best in class POS-GRIP wellhead equipment in new regions such as Malaysia and Asia which offer significant growth opportunities for Plexus.

Plexus CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, “We are delighted to announce that our JV company PPA has been successful in obtaining a local PETRONAS licence to manufacture and supply Plexus’ POS-GRIP wellhead technology into the Malaysian market. With our partner IPS being an existing licensed vendor to PETRONAS this adds significant weight to this new development, as we look to become a pivotal supplier of wellhead equipment in the region.

“Ultimately it is Plexus’ vision to repeat the success we’ve enjoyed from our main service base in Aberdeen in the Scottish and Norwegian North Sea and EMEA markets and to build a significant Asian presence and distribution channels from which to increase our global reach.

“With the latest flurry of news flow, this is truly an exciting period for Plexus. We anticipate that this will lead to many more supply opportunities in this important market. In tandem with expanding our geographic presence for the supply of our best in class POS-GRIP wellhead solutions predominantly in our organic jack up exploration arena, we are also committed to extending our offering through new innovative product development in the surface production and subsea arenas. One such initiative is our new and safer Python™ subsea wellhead, addressing key technical issues as highlighted by regulators following the Gulf of Mexico incident in April 2010.

“We have developed this alongside other international oil and gas majors and are launching the product in Aberdeen at Europe’s biggest Oil and Gas trade show, SPE Offshore Europe, in September 2015. We look forward to updating the market on these and further developments as we look to broaden our Company offering and increase shareholder value.”