Business
Maersk Funding GBP260K - Tieback Wellhead Project
Maersk Funding GBP260K - Tieback Wellhead Project.
About this update from Plexus Holdings
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 4993V Plexus Holdings Plc 13 January 2012 \n \n\nPlexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil equipment & services\n13 January 2012\nPlexus Holdings PLC ('Plexus' or 'the Company')\n£260,000 JIP Development and Testing Funding from Maersk Oil UK for up to 20,000 psi HP/HT Mudline Tieback Wellhead System Development\n \nPlexus Holdings PLC, the AIM quoted oil and gas engineering services business and owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP® friction-grip method of wellhead engineering, announces that it has received £260,000 funding from Maersk Oil North Sea UK Limited ('Maersk Oil UK'), a leading independent oil and gas company operating in the North Sea, towards the Company's 20,000 psi High Pressure/ High Temperature ('HP/HT') Mudline Tieback wellhead system Joint Industry Project ('JIP') development programme. \n \nTesting and manufacturing of the prototype is underway with assembly scheduled for the third quarter of this financial year, and final deployment and commercialisation is targeted for mid-2012.\n \nThe Tieback system design, which will utilise Plexus' metal-to-metal 'HG'® seals, will allow HP/HT exploration wells and pre-drilled production wells to be converted into either subsea or platform producing wells. These wells, which have an estimated cost of between £50 million and £300 million, are currently abandoned after drilling and to date there is no other technology in the market which can 'save' or 'convert' such wells. In addition, the HP/HT Mudline Tieback technology has the potential to shorten the development cycle of an oil and gas field by several years and in turn provide further substantial financial benefits, as it would allow the pre-drilling of production wells to commence before a production platform is put in place. \n \nPlexus' CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, \"This funding is a very positive development for our HP/HT Mudline Tieback wellhead system JIP development programme, which we believe, once commercialised, has the potential to become one of the most far reaching and financially beneficial developments in the economics of HP/HT jack-up oil and gas drilling programmes seen in many years.\" \n \nBackground to Tieback \n \nIn 2009 Plexus initiated a project to design and manufacture a product...