Old is gold, but in the oil industry these days, the young ones are winning most of the business.

Saddled with aging infrastructure and driven to deeper waters by the ever-widening search for energy, offshore explorers are desperate for new-generation equipment. Many end up knocking on the doors of Singapore’s Ezra Holdings Ltd, whose boats transport and help install rigs in the ocean.
“We have the youngest fleet of support vessels in the world,” said managing director Lionel Lee, who at the age of 32 heads the firm, which was listed in 2003.
Confident that demand for support vessels will remain strong, Lee added that Ezra has placed orders to double the size of its fleet to 26 vessels by autumn 2006.
Lee said Ezra’s young fleet – its oldest ship was built in 2001 – has helped it win contracts across Southeast Asia and China and as far as Ivory Coast in West Africa in the last couple of years, as the search for hydrocarbons moves into deeper waters.
“And that’s where you need new-generation vessels,” he said.