Plexus Regulatory News (POS)

Plexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil equipment & services

13 August 2014

Plexus Holdings PLC ('Plexus' or 'the Company')

Asia Expansion Strategy Update - Formation of a New Malaysian Joint Venture Company to Pursue Asian Region Business Opportunities

Plexus 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 its subsidiary Plexus Ocean Systems (Singapore) PTE. LTD has completed the formation of a new Malaysian Joint Venture ('JV') company Plexus Products (Asia) Sdn Bhd ('PPA') in conjunction with a local Malaysian oil and gas partner, Integrated Petroleum Services Sdn Bhd ('IPS'). 

The establishment of PPA in Malaysia is a key milestone in Plexus' strategy to create a fully operational Asian business hub to increase the supply of its pioneering POS-GRIP wellhead equipment and services to the important and vibrant Australian, Brunei, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, and Singaporean oil and gas exploration and production markets.

Importantly, IPS is a well renowned upstream support services business to the offshore oil and gas industry in Malaysia and the Asian Pacific region with in-house manufacturing capabilities. It is expected that PPA will benefit from the strong regional network and relationships of IPS as it seeks to obtain the local licences required to enable the supply of Plexus POS-GRIP wellhead equipment.

Over the past few years Plexus has successfully secured contracts with blue chip IOCs and NOCs in the Asian and Oceania regions such as Apache Energy Australia, eni Australia Ltd., Petronas, Santos Ltd., Shell Brunei, and Shell China. The Plexus Board believes that PPA will augment Plexus' recently established Singaporean regional HQ and services base, where Plexus Singapore has access to valve products which complement its wellhead equipment, and which enables Plexus to provide an enhanced product, servicing, and marketing service to the important Asian and Oceania oil and gas markets. 

Plexus CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said, "It is our vision to create a significant Asian business hub in Singapore which, together with the new Malaysian PPA entity, will service the Asian and Oceania regions. The new JV will allow us to build on our established operational presence in the region which will mirror our flagship and highly successfully head-quarters in Aberdeen, where we have been successful in introducing our POS-GRIP wellhead equipment and now enjoy a leading market position in the Scottish and Norwegian North Sea. The ambition of PPA is to become a pivotal supplier to the oil & gas industry in Malaysia and its first initiative will be to initiate the process of securing necessary local wellhead equipment supply licences.

"This is an exciting period for Plexus. In tandem with expanding our geographic presence for the supply of our best in class High Pressure/ High Temperature and standard pressure POS-GRIP wellhead solutions predominantly in the jack up exploration arena, we are also committed to extending our offering through new innovative product development. One such initiative is our new and safer wellhead HGSS subsea wellhead JIP which we are developing alongside six other oil and gas majors to deliver the next generation subsea wellhead. When considered together with our growing profitable rental wellhead supply business, where we continue to win contracts with various oil and gas majors worldwide, I believe Plexus is well positioned for significant news-flow for 2014 and beyond and I look forward to updating shareholders on our progress in due course." 

**ENDS**

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Notes to Editors:

Plexus Holdings PLC, which began trading on AIM in December 2005, is an oil and gas engineering and services business, which supplies wellhead and mudline suspension equipment for exploration and production applications. Based in Aberdeen, with offices in London, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur and a presence in Houston, Texas, it has developed and patented a friction-grip method of engineering for oil and gas field wellheads and connectors, POS-GRIP®, which involves deforming one tubular member against another to effect gripping and sealing.

The Company plans to accelerate the roll out of POS-GRIP wellhead equipment as a superior alternative to current technology and for it to become the future industry standard for wellhead design. In particular, the technology has advantages in High Pressure/High Temperature (HP/HT) and Extreme HP/HT (X-HP/HT) oil and gas environments, for which there is growing global demand and where Plexus is being increasingly recognised as the supplier of choice. Importantly, the Company is focussed on extending its proprietary technology into an increasing number of subsea applications. In line with this, in March 2011 the Company launched an initiative to develop a new subsea wellhead design, HGSS™, utilising its friction-grip technology in collaboration with key oil and gas operators and service companies. Royal Dutch Shell, Wintershall, Maersk, Tullow Oil, ENI, Oil States Industries Inc., TOTAL and the UK entity of the world's largest offshore drilling company have joined the initiative to date. The HGSS subsea wellhead design will include a combination of key features never before seen in a subsea wellhead which include being rated to 15,000 psi, 4,000,000 pounds of 'instant' casing lockdown capacity, annulus pressure monitoring and access for 'bleed off' capability to address sustained casing pressure ('SCP') issues which are recognised by the API as a serious industry problem, and rigid metal annular seal technology qualified to match the performance of premium casing. The design process has now been completed, and prototype testing is due for completion mid 2014.

To date, POS-GRIP wellhead systems have been used or selected to be used in over 300 oil and gas wells by international companies including AGR, Apache Energy Australia, BHP Billiton, BG International, Bowleven plc, BP, Brunei Shell Petroleum, Cairn Energy, Centrica, ConocoPhillips, Dana Petroleum, Dubai Petroleum, GDF SUEZ, Global Santa Fe, Maersk, Niko Resources, Petro-Canada Trinidad & Tobago, Red Sea Petroleum Operating Company, Repsol, RWE, Senergy Limited, Shell Egypt, StatoilHydro, Silverstone Energy, Talisman Energy, Tullow Oil, and Wintershall