Private placement in Aptomar AS
Press release april 19, 2010 Energy & EnvironmentAptomar AS has signed a framework agreement with GDF Suez for a comprehensive emergency response solution for operations on and around the Gjøa platform, 45 km (28 miles) outside Florø, Norway. At the same time, the company has strengthened its capital base by NOK 35 million through a private placement with Investinor, Statoil Venture and ProVenture Seed.
Aptomar AS delivers solutions to vessels, installations, and onshore facilities in the offshore oil and gas industry, coastguards and naval applications. Aptomar's products are used for purposes including environmental monitoring, search and rescue, surveillance, as well as coordination between land and sea accomplished using intelligent operation rooms.
For our customers, Aptomar's products offer increased operational safety, efficiency, and emergency response capacity, regardless of challenging weather conditions, darkness, or freezing temperatures. Through Aptomar's products, users can protect the safety of their vessels, their crews, and the environment – while reducing the costs of these operations at the same time. Worldwide, only Aptomar can provide this type of solution.
Safety at sea
Aptomar's main product, SECurus, is a sensor platform with a thermal imaging camera (IR camera), video camera and searchlight. The system can be customized with the sensors that the customer prefers, and can be combined with an advanced map system for dynamic positioning and rapid sharing of information from vessel to vessel, or between vessel and land.
The sensors remain stable, even in rough seas, so that they can be locked on to whatever the operator wants to control. The map system is easy to operate with a touch screen – not unlike an iPhone.
SECurus applications include oil spill response as well as operations in monitoring and emergency response.
Since the product was launched commercially in 2009, Aptomar AS has sold 13 SECurus systems to enterprises including Havila Shipping, Siem Offshore and Simon Møkster Shipping with their standby/rescue vessels in national and international waters, as well as to the seismic services provider PGS for operations off the west coast of Africa.
Here are some examples of the system's possibilities:
The thermal imaging camera can seek out and identify the head of a person lying in a survival suit up to 3 km (1.8 miles) away. The operator on the bridge can immediately find the person's GPS position on the electronic map, and alert the local authorities with information about the real-time position, video, and images.
Through the map system, SECurus indicates where to use booms and skimmers in the event of accidental discharge to contain the spill as quickly as possible. It accomplishes this by showing where the thickest oil is located, which in turn means that resources can be given priority and deployed precisely where the most effective results can be achieved. The rule of thumb is that 90% of the oil volume takes up 10% of the visible area. SECurus is the only system in the world today that can locate this 90% volume.
Aptomar is continuing to develop new functionality and new solutions together with its customers. In this way it will offer systems that improve operational safety, boost earnings, and sharpen competitive edge. Through this, it will increase the market potential of the products.
A growing market
Aptomar's products are attractive in the markets for newbuilds and for retrofits of vessels, floating and fixed installations as well as for coordination between sea and land. They are developed in close collaboration with the users of such systems, and satisfy the environmental and safety requirements of the authorities and operating companies.
Environmental monitoring and oil spill response in particular have received and continue to receive growing attention in offshore oil/gas and maritime operations. Players such as Statoil, ENI and Petrobras now insist that their ERRV (Emergency Response and Rescue Vessels) and SAR (Search and Rescue) vessels must have equipment with functionality corresponding to SECurus installed.
Facts about Aptomar AS
- The company is based in Trondheim, Norway, and was founded in 2005 (as SEC Systems AS).
- The founders have their background from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. The technology was developed in collaboration with Statoil and Simon Møkster Shipping, backed by Innovation Norway.
- Statoil and ProVenture Seed were shareholders in Aptomar in 2007. Since then, the company has grown from 3 to 23 employees.
A private placement of NOK 35 million has been carried out with Statoil Venture AS, the national seed fund ProVenture Seed AS and the State investment company Investinor AS.
For more information, please contact:
Lars Andre Solberg, CEO of Aptomar
+ 47 41 43 45 42 / [email protected]
Thor Egil Five, Chairman of the Board of Aptomar
+47 907 51 038 / [email protected]
The company's website: www.aptomar.com
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Energy & Environment