Time for oil spill centre

Lamor Corporation, a Finnish-based company and one of the world’s leading producers of oil recovery equipment, is willing to fork out money to help set up an oil spill centre to fight oil spills here.

While the sustained growth in the local energy sector has the company itching to do business here, the company has suggested to energy professionals that perhaps now is the time to look seriously at how the country can deal with a major oil spill. According to Andrew Craw-ford, Lamor’s International Sales Director, the company’s interest in TT really came about because of this country’s increasing environmental awareness and growth in the oil sector. He urged a gathering last week of local energy experts and businessmen at a presentation of the company’s products at Ambassador Hotel that it was time to set up a local oil spill facility to fight spills here. He noted that currently, whenever there is an oil spill in the Caribbean, most of the oil companies have a small amount of equipment to deal with the problem. However, he noted that they rely heavily on a co-operative in Florida called Clean Caribbean which has a stockpile of equipment located in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. “So when there is an oil spill in TT or St Maarten or one of the other countries where the oil companies are members of Clean Caribbean, the country will call the co-operative and ask them to come down with their equipment and clean up the spill,” he said.

Not only is this quite costly but he believes that it is better and cheaper if the oil companies have their own equipment to clean up oil spills. He said whenever they sell equipment, they tailor training packages for clients. He said most large oil organisations include special protection of the environment in their company policies, adding that the government also has a very significant role to play in promoting a clean environment and enforcing the regulations to protect it. Crawford said when Lamor sets up business in TT it will be working closely with the government to get their assistance in enforcing environmental regulations and to encourage oil companies to become part of the oil co- operative. Crawford said while they have been receiving lots of interest from companies in TT like BHP Billiton, bpTT and many other local energy organisations, Lamor, he noted, is in an exploration mode and is still researching the local market. He said the level of interest that they have been receiving shows that people and organisations are concerned about the environment.

Stiff brush oil skimmers form the foundation of the Lamor product range. The patented technologies are based on rotating oleophilic brush systems, which separate and recover all types of oil and oily debris, with a low water content. Lamor has supplied equipment for use in major oil spills around the world, including the recent Prestige incident in Spain, where miles of coastline was contaminated with oil. Crawford said the Caribbean is one of the areas that Lamor has not traditionally done business. Up until last year, Lamor basically focused on Russia and the Baltic countries. However, since they acquired two other oil spill equipment manufacturers, Lori and GT Pollution, Lamor wants to increase its reach. “We have taken on a larger territory now and we are trying to bring our equipment and business into other areas of the world where we have not been before,” he added. He said while the company has had some success in Colombia and the US,  the company has also done some business with Cuba and Jamaica but not with countries in the southern part of the Caribbean. Crawford said Lamor’s intention is to find a local agent in TT, who can look after their interest here. The company has offices in England, Beijing, Moscow and later on this year may be opening an office in the US.

But, “We usually work through agents in other countries and those guys look after our interest in those countries and we support them from Finland.” He said since TT is the country with the largest oil base in the region, they would like to find an agent to serve this market exclusively. However, he said it is quite possible that the agent will be able to service other Caribbean islands as well. “What we envisage for TT is something of a centre and we would not want our agents in Venezuela trying to support TT. We want someone here to support TT, because there is a very large market potential.” He said Lamor does not have any other agents in the Caribbean, noting that one of the companies they took over, Lori, used to service the Caribbean region through an office in the US. He could not say when exactly Lamor will be setting up business in TT or how much it would cost. He said the type of centre they would like to set up will mean an investment of US $7 million, noting  he will be very disappointed if the company did not have something operational in TT in the next two months. He is optimistic though, noting that they met a number of people who are interested in doing business with Lamor. “We want to look at those companies and see if they are suitable to promote our products,” he said.