Plexus reveals launch date for Python Subsea Wellhead

Plexus Holdings PLC, the AIM quoted oil and gas engineering services business has announced it will launch its new POS-GRIP Python Subsea Wellhead during at ‘SPE Offshore Europe’ event on September 8 2015.

The new Python Subsea Wellhead, previously referred to as the “HGSS” Wellhead, has been designed to address key technical issues and requirements highlighted by regulators following the Gulf of Mexico incident in April 2010 and to achieve a new best in class standard for subsea wellheads that can for the first time match those of premium couplings.

The Python Subsea Wellhead has been under development since 2011 within a Joint Industry Project (‘JIP’) supported by major oil and gas operators and service company consulting partners, including BG, Royal Dutch Shell, Wintershall, Maersk, TOTAL, Tullow Oil, eni, Senergy, and Oil States Industries Inc.

Subsea expenditure to grow

Plexus said: “Entering the global subsea market is a key part of Plexus’ management’s strategy to expand the Company’s suite of POS-GRIP wellhead equipment into larger fast growing markets. Subsea exploration and production has grown rapidly since 2000 in terms of total expenditure from US$7billion to approximately US$45billion in 2014. According to a report by Rystad Energy in May 2014 this strong growth is expected to continue, with subsea expenditure forecast to grow by an annual rate of 15%, to US$115 billion by 2020.”

The company further added: “In terms of Python’s development, Plexus has recently achieved several additional technical milestones in the qualification and testing of the new system, and will have a full prototype system on display at SPE Offshore Europe in Aberdeen in September 2015. At the launch, Plexus expects to be able to announce further details of the enhanced safety and cost saving features of the Python Subsea Wellhead, as well as positive results of qualification testing, to standards which significantly exceed conventional industry requirements. Plexus anticipates the Python Subsea Wellhead will be ready for offshore deployment in a trial well during 2016.”

Dream coming true

Plexus’ CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, “I am delighted that the Python Subsea Wellhead system will be launched at the September SPE Offshore Europe Aberdeen oil show. Personally for me this is a forty four year dream come true. In June 1971 I started my career with Vetco in Ventura California as a service engineer installing some of the earliest subsea wellhead systems on projects around the world. Now it gives me great pleasure to be part of the team that has designed and delivered a new class of subsea wellhead which we believe will raise subsea wellhead standards to a best in class level not considered possible in the past.

“The Plexus engineers who have worked tirelessly over the past four years are to be commended for their engineering ingenuity and perseverance, and the JIP member representatives who have taken part in the design process of the Python subsea wellhead system are also highly deserving of our gratitude for their invaluable contribution to the project.

“The Python Subsea Wellhead system is designed to deliver true and verifiable metal to metal sealing capability in ultra deep-water, and is also aimed at simplifying installation procedures to such an extent that numerous installation trips are eliminated to render the system effective cost negative. I am very proud of our achievement and I look forward to help promote this ground-breaking technology, as it moves from prototype to product.”