Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The global economic instability hit everyone hard last year, and for us it presented some major challenges but we handled them well and I think we are in a stronger position to face 2010, our 25th year! We managed our way through a difficult year and in fact brought about major development by continuing to focus on our core business and what we are good at. I have said on a number of occasions that a clear understanding of our strategy and clarity of purpose are essential; it was fundamental in 2009 and was manifest by:

• Ensuring that we have the best people, committed to leading the fi eld; and in growing their capability and demonstrating this through our accredited competency based training programmes. We continue to be used more by Shareholders and are becoming more involved in broader emergency response management service activities such as incident command.

• Our striving to get closer to the customer; we have expanded our presence enormously in West Africa through projects in Ghana and Nigeria, and since the opening of our office in Jakarta have already attracted new Members.

• Continuing to put significant effort into our training capability; this continues to grow particularly in the delivery of accredited courses.

• Ongoing and increasing demand for our technical services, notably the Technical Advisory service which is widely respected and now an integral part of our service delivery.

We have been active in developing relationships between other Tier 3 industry owned response organisations and have established a relationship with NOFO in Norway and an Alliance with the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre. The well control incident and oil spill in the Timor Sea very quickly served to illustrate the benefits of such co-operation.

2010 represents a significant landmark in our evolution and sees the 25th Anniversary of the Company’s foundation. During that period there has been major change within the industry and I have personally seen the Company grow from a single site operation of 30 staff, to one that is truly global with 140 expert personnel operating from multiple sites around the world. Whilst increasing capability we have throughout that time managed to retain fees within infl ation, to absorb mergers - and consistently add value to our Shareholders.

We have a continuing story to tell, and we shall deliver more of the same high quality service; consistently but always looking to improve. We are still foremost a spill response company and we never forget the importance of being able to respond. In 25 successful years we have never let our customers down. Our assurance for the future is that with this constancy of purpose we shall continue to focus on the development of an increasingly expert spill response service ensuring you are well prepared and have access to the best response capability.

2010 will inevitably be a challenge but I am entirely confident that our great team has the energy and enthusiasm to embrace change, and that continued development of expertise will enable us proudly to maintain our global lead in the field..

 

ARCHIE SMITH
Chief Executive
January 2010

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