UK: Key Oil Majors, Plexus Team Up to Develop New Subsea Wellhead

Plexus Holdings PLC, an oil and gas engineering services business and owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP® method of wellhead engineering, announces world leading oil and gas companies Maersk Oil , Shell, Wintershall,  and the UK entity of the world’s largest offshore drilling company, and oil and gas technology solution consultancy SafeKick Ltd have signed up as consulting partners to Plexus’ Joint Industry Project (‘JIP’) to develop and commercialise a new and safer subsea wellhead utilising Plexus’ patented POS-GRIP technology.

In addition Plexus is in advanced discussions with three further international oil and gas operators regarding joining the JIP project, and expects to provide an update on this in due course.

Overview

· JIP initiated in October 2010 in response to oil and gas industry encouragement for Plexus to develop the application of its POS-GRIP surface and platform friction-grip wellhead technology subsea

· New ‘HGSS’™ subsea wellhead will be designed to address key technical issues and requirements highlightedfollowing the Gulf of Mexico incident in April 2010

· Key industry members of the JIP will contribute to the design and engineering process for the new subsea wellhead – Plexus’ intention is for relevant JIP partners to become end users of HGSS wellhead once fully built, tested and commercialised

· 18-24 month development programme – total project cost over a two year period estimated at £1.5m to £2m of which a substantial part will classify as R&D

· Recruiting a subsea development and engineering team for the JIP, located in a dedicated building in Aberdeen

· Intellectual property (‘IP’) generated by the project will be owned by Plexus, adding to the extensive suite of IP associated with proprietary POS-GRIP technology

Plexus’ CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, “Today’s announcement is a major vote of confidence for our JIP subsea wellhead project, and confirms the strong support and encouragement we continue to receive from key industry players to further develop our friction grip wellhead technology in areas beyond our organic jack-up exploration activities. I believe that there is a growing recognition by the industry of POS-GRIP technology, which reinforces the significant commercial potential in new application areas such as subsea.

“I am confident that the HGSS Subsea Wellhead will ultimately prove to be a superior subsea wellhead option in the years to come, and we look forward to working closely with all our new partners, as well as welcoming additional JIP members to the project in due course, as we continue to develop the POS-GRIP HGSS Subsea Wellhead project”.

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Offshore Energy Today Staff , November 21, 2011