Plexus Installs 1st Arctic Wellhead For Gazprom

London-listed Plexus Holding has reported the installation of its first jack-up exploration wellhead in the Russian Kara Sea under a rental contract with Russia’s Gazprom.

The wellhead was installed by Plexus’ Russian licence partner Gusar, under a contract with Gazprom for up to a five-year jack-up gas exploration drilling programme on the Kara Sea shelf, in waters less than 150 metres deep, Plexus said in a stock exchange filing on September 24. Plexus is employing its proprietary Pos-Grip friction-grip method of wellhead engineering.

“The deployment of this first wellhead avails Gazprom of the many technical advantages of Pos-Grip technology,” Plexus CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek said. “We are pleased that such a major global operator, after considering the available alternatives, has made the choice in favour of Pos-Grip technology for working in the Arctic conditions.”

Bilderbeek noted that the equipment had also been used by international companies such as BP and Centrica from the UK, US ConocoPhillips, Italian Eni, Anglo-Dutch Shell and French Total.

Gazprom is at the forefront of exploration activity in the Kara Sea. It reported the discovery of two new gas fields in the area in May and in July it revealed plans to sink more wells this year at Kara Sea licence areas Leningradsky and Skuratovsky.