An investment fund which buys and leases jumbo jets is looking to cash in on the exploration crisis hitting the North Sea.
Nimrod Capital has announced plans to buy 10 vessels to service the oil and gas industry, including platform supply vessels and mobile offshore drilling units.
Nimrod Sea Assets has listed in London after raising £79million, which it will use to build a portfolio of between eight and 10 minority positions in special-purpose holding companies, each of which will typically own and lease a vessel serving the offshore oil and gas industry.
These ships will be focused on the North Sea and South East Asia, and will include platform supply vessels and mobile offshore drilling units.
The group also manages the Doric Nimrod Air funds, which lease Airbus aircraft to Emirates Airlines.
The deal comes as the North Sea faces an exploration crisis. The number of exploration wells being drilled in the basin dropped to just 15 last year.
Drilling firms have also warned that they are ready to turn their backs on Aberdeen after George Osborne’s newest tax raid on the oil and gas industry.
The chancellor is facing mounting pressure over his decision to slap an extra tax on rigs and flotels coming into the North Sea to carry out work – a practice known as bareboat chartering.
The International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) has since warned that firms with headquarters in Aberdeen could pull out of the country altogether because of the “fiscal instability”.
IADC executive vice-president Taf Powell said its members were “deeply disappointed” by the decision
“We believe this is not sustainable to our industry and will cause the UK offshore sector to shrink,” he said. “Overall we think the costs to the UK economy will be higher than the immediate extra tax revenues forecast by these measure.”