Energy Ventures Announces 14 Million NOK Investment in LYNX Technologies AS, now Omniware

Stavanger, Norway, December 5, 2003 - Energy Ventures, a leading venture capital business partner for emerging companies targeting the energy sector, today announced a 14 Million NOK investment in LYNX Technologies AS, a leading software supplier for the oil & gas industry world wide. Jan Grimnes, the founder of Technoguide AS, has co-invested with Energy Ventures and will join LYNX as chairman of the board.

LYNX Technologies AS will use the funding to support aggressive expansion in the areas of sales, marketing, support and development, and thus establishing itself as a world leader in software for Health, Safety & Environment Managemenas well as Supply Chain Management / Contract Management.

"The next five years will forever change the landscape for software in both Contract Management and Health, Safety & Environmental Management" said Roger Arnesen, CEO of LYNX Technologies AS. "These are important business areas which are only starting to get enterprise level attention, and we see a very strong growth trend in both of these areas over the coming years. Lynx offers unique business solutions for these areas."

LYNX Technologies have two products, OmniCom and OmniSafe. OmniCom is a Contract Management software suite covering the entire value chain process for manage og contracts from strategy level to final closeout. Customers include: UK Atomic Energy Authority, Shell Chemicals Inc, Shell China, Sakhalin Energy, Brunei Shell, Woodside Energy, Marathon Ashland Petroleum and BHP Billitons. OmniSafe is a Health, Safety & Environmental Management system with modules covering every aspect of the HSE business area from Environmental Accounting and Chemical Safety to Incident Reporting and Accident Investigation. Customers include: Shell Technology, Devon Energy, Norske Shell, Todd Oil, Sarawak Shell and Apache Corporation.

"LYNX Technologies have through an exceptional track-record covering customers literally around the world, with some of the strongest energy names in the business on their reference list, shown that they know how to address the business needs of the industry", said Ole Melberg, Energy Ventures Managing Partner. "Lynx has developed not only one, but two separate business solution software products and has made market leaders of both of them. This gives us confidence for the future development of the company when we consider the overall growth expected in both of these business areas."

Further enquiries:
LYNX Technologies: Roger Arnesen, + 47 92 29 68 29
Energy Ventures: Helge Hellebust, + 47 93 20 25 50

About LYNX Technologies AS
Founded by Roger Arnesen in 1996 to deliver Contract Management Software to the Oil & Gas industry, the company now has nearly 50 customers world wide. In 1997 the Health, Safety & Environmental product line was added to the companyâ??s product mix, which now account for half the revenue in the company. The company has operated profitably every year since it was founded while maintaining a strong growth rate for the last three years. LYNXâ??s employees will hold a majority of the shares in the company also after this investment. The company website is http://www.lynxtechnologies.com/

About Energy Ventures
Energy Venture is an independent venture fund based in Stavanger, Norway. The fund specialises its investment activities in high growth technology companies within the energy sector.
Energy Ventures' main focus is on upstream E&P technologies, but consideration is also given to mid- or downstream technologies as well as to power and environmental technologies for the energy business. Target companies are located in the North Sea region, but will preferably have international operations. New technologies and smart applications of same offering improved performance, productivity gains, cost reductions and the opening of new territory for E&P activities are key drivers for investments made. The fund invests in high growth North Sea based technology companies that successfully markets and sells proprietary or unique technology products or solutions to the international market. More information can be found on: http://www.energyventures.no/