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LONDON (Alliance News) - Plexus Holdings PLC Tuesday said that Senergy Holdings Ltd has signed up as an additional consulting partner to its Joint Industry Project to develop and commercialise a new and safer subsea wellhead using Plexus' POS-GRIP technology.
The oil and gas engineering services company said energy services provider Senergy is a member of the Lloyd's Register Group, and joins Total E&P Recherche Developpement SAS, Maersk Oil North Sea UK Ltd, Shell International Exploration and Production BV, Wintershall Noordzee BV, Tullow Oil, Eni SpA and Oil States Industries Inc as consulting partners on the JIP.
The JIP was set up to address certain technical issues and safety questions which arose following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
The company said current engineering and testing stages for the POS-GRIP HGSS subsea wellhead, which is designed to be safer and have fewer parts in the wellbore than other competing systems, are well advanced.
The POS-GRIP method of engineering deforms one tubular section against another. When one tube is run inside another in a well, a gradually tightening ring is clamped around the outside. The outer tube is forced onto the inner tube, and the resulting friction removes all movement from the system.
The company added that the subsea wellhead should also provide superior sealing and locking capacities to casing hangers immediately after thier installation and will hopefully provide the ability to monitor and manage subsea annulus pressure.
Plexus said that its goal is that all members of the JIP will become end-users once the design is complete, with all intellectual property generated in the JIP being owned by Plexus.
"To date, the new HGSS Subsea Wellhead design is in the final completion stages," Chief Executive Ben Van Bilderbeek said in a statement. "And manufacturing of test fixtures is underway with full system testing expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2014."
The news comes after the company announced this month a purchase order worth GBP1.5 million from GDF Suez E&P UK Ltd for exploration activities in the UK Central North Sea, a GBP1.1 million contract with Maersk Group to supply the POS-GRIP technology on a well in the UK North Sea and a three-year contract renewal deal for the supply of its POS-GRIP wellhead equipment to Wintershall Noordzee BV, which will initially see the POS-GRIP technology used on two wells in the Dutch North Sea.
Plexus Holdings shares were up 4.9% to 273.05 pence Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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