The government is putting together an action plan to solve a rig shortage crisis in the North Sea, but experts claim that no new rigs are available for hire until the end of 2007, the Sunday Herald reported. Surging demand for equipment is caused by the high oil price, which has made previously abandoned discoveries economically viable again. The shortage of exploring rigs has forced the industry and the Department of Trade and Industry to come up with a plan, yet to be published, which involves the sharing of rigs. Mobile rigs are used to drill for oil and assess the extent of a find. Rigs, which sat disused in the Moray Firth three years ago, in a flat exploration market, are now the hottest properties on the sea.