First 20k PSI Subsea Wellhead System

FMC Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FTI) has signed a contract for the manufacture and supply of FMC's proprietary HC-20 high capacity subsea wellhead system, the oil and gas industry's first subsea wellhead system to be rated and qualified at 20,000 pounds per square inch (psi).

In addition to operating at pressures as high as 20,000 psi, the equipment is engineered to perform at temperatures as high as 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The HC-20 enables the development of high-pressure wells and its enhanced load bearing capacity, in excess of nine million pounds, allows operators to drill deeper wells with heavier casing strings. FMC's HC-20 subsea wellhead system also incorporates a unique independent load distribution mechanism to support up to four million pounds of combined casing string capacity plus full 20,000 psi blowout preventer test pressure.

The HC-20 system is scheduled to be delivered to Anadarko Petroleum Corporation in the fourth quarter of 2009 and will be manufactured at FMC's facility in Houston.

"As customer projects encounter greater water depths, higher pressures and higher temperatures, FMC will continue to engineer the innovative and industry leading technologies they require," said John Gremp, Executive Vice President of FMC Technologies.