Regional areas served by Singapore’s offshore hub have been raising the bar for shipowners, by strengthening cabotage rules to protect their own oil service companies.

The island nation lacks its own offshore fields but this has not stopped it from building up the area’s largest fleet of offshore support vessels (OSVs), with 449 ships flying the Singaporean flag.

Singapore, and Southeast Asia in general, has long been dominated by smaller anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels, although more platform supply vessels (PSVs) have been used in the mix.