Stephen Ball, chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin UK, owner of UK Seabed Resources, says the engineering experience of offshore oil and gas operations and the trend to rising mineral prices have now combined to make seabed mining feasible.

BBC: UK Seabed Resources joins deep-ocean mineral-mining rush

There is engineering expertise, notably in Aberdeen, where the offshore oil industry has been installing complex machinery in rough seas for decades.

ECONOMIST: The government wants to build up a marine-energy industry

For example, it thinks that the oil and gas companies in Aberdeen could sell a lot more of their offshore-engineering products and services if they shared more information and tackled common technological problems together.

ECONOMIST: Fashions are changing in the inward-investment business

There is more hope for offshore wind, which is technically trickier, since North Sea oil has left a legacy of marine-engineering expertise in Britain.

ECONOMIST: Renewable energy