The “welcome and long-awaited” oil and gas tax measures unveiled in the Budget will help drive new investment in North Sea exploration and production, the boss of Aberdeen firm Plexus Holdings said yesterday.
Plexus stands top gain from the tax cuts and incentives announced by Chancellor George Osborne last week, Ben van Bilderbeek, the oilfield technology company’s founder and chief executive, added.
Particularly helpful is the new cluster allowance to support the development of high pressure, high temperature (HP/HT) projects and encourage exploration and appraisal activity nearby, he said.
Mr van Bilderbeek was speaking as Plexus announced another record set of results on the back of growing global demand for its innovative Pos-Grip wellhead technology.
The firm’s products have already been used in more than 300 wells globally by the likes of BG, BHP Billiton, BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Tullow Oil, and Wintershall.
A recent move into subsea work is progressing through a joint industry partnership with Shell, Total, BG Group, Maersk, Wintershall, Tullow Oil, Eni, Breda, Senergy, Oil States and Transocean.
A prototype subsea system is currently being built and should be ready in time for showcasing at the Offshore Europe oil and gas show in Aberdeen in September, Plexus said yesterday.
Reporting his firm’s 16.6% year-on-year jump in pre-tax profits to £2.2million for the six months to December 31, with sales up by 7% to £13.51million, Mr van Bilderbeek said: “This has been a further period of growth, one in which we have continued to deliver on our strategy to build Plexus into a leading international oil and gas wellhead engineering company.
“This excellent financial performance is the result of new business generation supplying our proprietary Pos-Grip wellhead systems, primarily into the exploration jack-up drilling market.
“Our wellhead equipment continues to gain traction with leading international oil and gas majors as it meets the critical safety and performance demands required of wellhead technology.
“During the period we secured multiple contract wins in the North Sea, particularly offshore Norway, including wins with Centrica, Maersk, Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA Norway, and BG Group (UK).
“In addition, we gained a further important contract win in Asia with Shell Brunei for an additional three exploration wells under an existing four-year contract which bodes well for further business in the future.”
He added: “As originally recommended by the 2014 Wood Report, the UK Government confirmed in the Budget last week a series of tax cuts and incentives.
“These welcome and long-awaited measures will help drive further investment in exploration and production, and Plexus expects to benefit over the coming years.”
Recommended for you
