when oil was found in the north sea in the 1970s the local fishing fleet ship owners seized the opportunity and rebuilt fishing vessels to serve the infant oil exploration and production industry. soon they were able to build purpose designed offshore vessels at local shipyards to serve the north sea oil adventure even better. today this has become a cornerstone industry in and around ålesund through leading offshore supply ship owning companies farstad, bourbon, olympic, havila, and rem. serving the ship building industry a large number of equipment manufacturers has evolved: rolls royce, odim, sperre, optimar, ship equip, jets and many more.