In 1959 a huge gas bubble was discovered in the Dutch province of Groningen. Soon experts started to suspect that gas could also be extracted from the North Sea. When this proved to be true, it did not take long for both existing and new companies to plunge into offshore oil and gas extraction. As a result the Netherlands has acquired one of the most important offshore industries in the world since the oil crisis.

It owes this position to a group of suppliers: innovative companies that build,...