Total has awarded Plexus Holdings PLC a £3.3million contract for its high temperature, high pressure Solaris gas exploration well in the Graben area of the North Sea offshore Norway.
Plexus will supply its 18-3/4” XHP/HT POS-GRIP Jack-up drilling system under the contract.
Plexus chief executive Ben Van Bilderbeek said the deal confirmed safety remains the industry’s top priority amid difficult market conditions.
“This contract confirms that even during challenging times, operators focus on the best and safest solutions, when conditions demand it,” he said.
“Plexus provides the superior solutions for jack-up drilling operations, because our technology combines the high pressure metal to metal sealing, with the ability to leave the Blowout Preventers (BOPs) on the well throughout the drilling programme. As exploring and extraction of gas goes deeper, is more complex and must be conducted in delicate environments; innovative, safe and effective wellhead technology becomes ever more important. Safety is in the detail and particularly wellheads cannot afford to be the weak link in the system and for this reason Plexus seeks to use unique metal seal technology which matches the integrity of casing couplings.
“Our Plexus team is proud to have been selected on this well, which is designed to cope with some of the highest pressures ever drilled in the Norwegian part of the North Sea. We are also delighted to be working with Total as a new client on this drilling project. Further, Total through one of its research groups, has worked with Plexus over the past four years on the development of a new generation subsea wellhead system, under the auspices of the ‘Python’ Joint Industry Project (‘JIP’). The Python JIP is sponsored by a number of major operating companies and will be launched at the Aberdeen Offshore Europe Oil show (‘OE2015’) in September 2015.”
Solaris is located close to BG Norge’s Mandarin East well, which is also known for its extreme high pressure conditions and initial data suggests that Solaris may be the highest pressure well in the North Sea to date.
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