Leading international oilfield services company Expro, has secured a contract worth in excess of $6 million (£3.7 million) with Hess Australia for an appraisal drilling campaign off the North West Shelf of Western Australia.

The contract is due to commence in quarter four 2011 and the Jack Bates semi submersible drilling rig will be used to undertake the campaign through mid-2012.

The project will involve the deployment of Expro’s well testing, subsea, slickline, fluids and sampling and wet gas meter capabilities.

Ed Anderson, Expro’s Asia Region Director, said: “At Expro, we offer integrated solutions to help our customers achieve their goals throughout the full life cycle of a well, from exploration and appraisal through to abandonment.

“Hess is a new client for us in Australia. Our technical competence, quality control and maintenance systems as well as our personnel and management were just a few of the many areas examined by the company during audits at our Canning Vale and Darwin facilities.

“We were able to demonstrate to Hess our outstanding record and commitment to excellence in operations and are delighted to have been rewarded for these efforts.”

Expro’s market-leading subsea safety systems provide reliable and efficient in-riser landing strings for well interventions and completions. Expro is already well established in the deepwater regions of the world, including Africa, Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, with its superior technology and expertise in greater demand as development progresses in the world’s deepwater provinces.

Expro’s modular process equipment measures the performance of a well with acute accuracy. Testing involves flowing the well through a temporary completion and production system in order to measure flow parameters, and to gather representative fluid samples for analysis. These measurements are used to determine commercial viability, as well as to plan potential future completion and production facilities.