Plexus Holdings will launch its new POS-GRIP Python subsea wellhead during SPE Offshore Europe on 8 September 2015. The new Python subsea wellhead was 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 match premium couplings.
Specifically, the system is energized by reusable hydraulic devices which are fitted temporarily to flanges on the outside of the wellhead. The POS-GRIP clamp arrangement can be configured to squeeze the outer pipe so that it grips the smaller pipe inside.
The system is designed to deliver true and verifiable metal to metal sealing capability in ultra deepwater, 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.
The Python subsea wellhead has been under development since 2011 within a joint industry project 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.
According to the company, subsea exploration and production total expenditures have grown rapidly since 2000, from US$7 billion to more than $45 billion 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 $115 billion by 2020.
Plexus 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.
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.
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