The $12 billion Orange County Employees Retirement System has issued a request for proposals for investment strategies that can favorably exploit the recent dramatic drop in crude oil prices.

“We are exploring the available options to deploy our capital strategically and timely in light of the recent plunge in crude oil prices and the anticipated shake-out in the American energy industry,” explained Girard Miller, chief investment office with OCERS, in a statement. “OCERS will consider both equity and debt strategies in this competitive procurement.”

As Miller stated, OCERS is interested in equity strategies in the dislocated energy marketplace as well as debt and credit strategies that can exploit the recent credit-market washout in the energy industry, which has been a growing segment of the junk bond market that now appears vulnerable in some instances, according to OCERS.

The retirement system has $250 million still available for commitments in 2015