The dust has settled on the collapse of the Asian offshore sector in 2015 and the surviving operators have started making money again.

Their counterparts in the Middle East are enjoying a healthy revival and talk eagerly of expansion, but there will be no such bullish sentiment among their Asian peers until banks regain confidence in the sector.

Singapore, before the market collapse, was the centre of the Asian offshore industry, with many offshore support vessel operators, large and small, that had borrowed heavily to invest in sophisticated new tonnage to prepare themselves for the bright futures that the oil majors and analysts were predicting.