SINGAPORE, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Lamor Group Ltd (Lamor) and Swire Pacific Offshore Limited (SPO) have established a 50:50 Joint Venture to provide emergency oil spill response solutions for the Oil and Gas sector.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080311/296101-a )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080311/296101-b )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080311/296101-c )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080311/296101-d )

The joint venture, Lamor Swire Environmental Solutions (PTE) Limited (LSES) will allow Lamor, a world class leader in oil spill response equipment, and SPO, a dedicated leader in the offshore supply vessel market, the opportunity to unite their core expertise, experience and skill sets into a single bonded global enterprise that will provide the oil & gas sector with the most cost effective and contemporary solutions to oil spill preparedness and response available anywhere on the market. LSES will define a new era in seamless Tier I (local)/ Tier II (national)/ and Tier III (international) oil spill response.

Operationally, the joint venture is presently establishing strategically located cross-globe emergency response Depots capable of offering guaranteed, safe, rapid and overlapping access to Tier II and Tier III oil spill protection and combat resources.

The service will offer clients a one-stop shop for training, exercises, equipment, and tiered response supported by dedicated logistics and personnel deployed and trained to combat spills of national and international significance.

The joint venture will also have access to the Swire Marine Training Centre which will become a centre of excellence for comprehensive pollution management training as part of the overall service offering.

To supplement existing inventories in Finland, Singapore and West Africa, the JV has placed further orders for EURO10 million worth of emergency oil spill response equipment for initial deployment in the Middle East.

Commenting on the new Joint Venture, SPO Managing Director JB Rae-Smith said "With the increasing focus on the environment and the problems being caused by pollution, we have seen increasing requests from our Customers for a more effective and comprehensive response to pollution related issues.

"LSES has been set up to cater to this demand and will enable SPO and Lamor to add considerable value to the services we currently provide by providing locally available oil spill equipment and staff trained in pollution control and clean up," he said.

"The Joint Venture is unique in the sense that our vessels will be equipped to handle the additional oil spill equipment and our officers and crews will be specifically trained in pollution response." Rae-Smith continued. The key to the service offering is to combine Lamor's experience in handling pollution response with global SPO's network of vessels and people to provide an immediate offshore response capability.

Nico Larsen, Vice President Lamor Group, said; "Both companies have acknowledged a growing emphasis in the marketplace to developing environmental management capabilities, and in respecting that principal Lamor, has joined SPO to provide efficient responses to oil spills globally. LSES target is to set up around 10 regional Tier 3 oil spill response centers. These Tier 3 centers together with the SPO fleet make fast establishment of several smaller Tier 2 level centers possible. The joint venture also strongly supports our strategy of global presence and growth in both onshore and offshore environmental response."

LSES not only offers customers access to oil spill equipment but also provides the means through SPO's offshore fleet to actually mobilize it to provide faster emergency responses.

"Lamor has grown substantially in the last 10 years and is now a globally recognized environmental management business, and through this Joint Venture, we now have access to SPO's unprecedented global network, to deliver even higher standards of service to our customers," Larsen says.

Additional information about LAMOR

Lamor is a leading provider of innovative oil spill response solutions with more than 25 years of experience in oil spill response technologies. Lamor conduct most of their Research and Development in Finland but have permanent sales offices and agent networks that cover the globe. Most of Lamor's patented equipment is produced in Europe, America and Asia. They are committed to finding new solutions to protect the environment from oil spills and to leading the way in finding smart solutions to pollution.

Additional information about SPO

SPO owns and operates over 66 offshore support vessels, with a further 650 million USD investment programme in new buildings for delivery from shipyards in 2008-2011. The fleet includes modern Dynamically Positioned Anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) vessels which are ideal for use in oil spill recovery offshore, salvage, towage. SPO also has over 1,600 experienced seafarers available for a variety of tasks including oil spill containment and recovery. SPO also has warehouse space in Dubai, Singapore and Cameroon containing Oil Spill Response and salvage equipment. Headquartered in Singapore, SPO has regional offices in Australia, Azerbaijan, Brunei, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Qatar, Scotland and the United Arab Emirates, and operates vessels in every major oil exploration region outside of North America. SPO is a subsidiary of Swire Pacific Ltd., a blue-chip company listed in Hong Kong.

http://www.swire.com.sg

http://www.lamor.com

Lamor Media Contact: Mr Nico Larsen, Vice President Lamor Group, +358-40-5177920 or +358-20-7650-100