IIR Podcast: Offshore Energy Offers Promise, but Faces Steep Hurdles
Three experts offered their insights on the offshore energy sector, which is seeing significant development on multiple fronts, in a podcast presentation of Industrial Info's 2025 Offshore Energy Market Spending Outlook. Industrial Info is tracking more than US$2.7 trillion worth of offshore energy projects globally, including crude oil and natural gas development, pipeline systems, liquefied natural gas (LNG) development and wind power. Shaheen Chohan, Industrial Info's Vice President of Global Analytics; Britt Burt, Senior Vice President of Global Research for the Power Industry; and Gordon Gorrie, Senior Vice President of Global Research for the Oil & Gas Production Industry, surveyed numerous factors that are influencing the development of offshore energy projects, from the rising demand for both fossil fuel and renewable energy, to cost barriers, geopolitical conflicts and the possible impact of tariffs. To view Industrial Info's 2025 Offshore Energy Market Spending Outlook, click here.
Offshore oil and gas production projects have seen stronger support in the U.S. following last year's re-election of President Donald Trump, but they are getting more attention in other regions as well. Industrial Info is tracking more than US$325 billion worth of offshore oil and gas production projects worldwide, including more than US$91.5 billion worth under construction.
Gorrie said the offshore oil and gas investments "are across the board," from standard wellhead platforms in shallow water to ultra-deepwater projects, such as floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units. "But what I've been seeing--and it's fairly recently, over the last two years--is a major uptick in subsea tieback systems," some of which now extend as far as eight miles. Gorrie said much of the capital spending is going toward these projects because they "enhance the lives of existing platforms." But any major movement in activity ultimately is fueled by commodity prices, which lately have been trending low for crude oil. This could curb some of the U.S.-based development sought by the Trump administration. "You only 'drill, baby, drill' if the price is right," Gorrie said. He later added: "There's a question mark from the recent, quite substantial drop in the oil price that could put a spanner in the works."
The Persian Gulf leads all other global offshore areas in its total investments for active and proposed projects, including more than US$3.6 billion worth that started construction in the first four months of 2025. Two of the largest are managed by QatarEnergy LNG, the LNG-focused subsidiary of the state-owned QatarEnergy (Doha, Qatar): the Platform 3 and Platform 4 for a natural gas-compression project in the Gulf's North Field, which is one of the largest gas fields in the world. The platforms weigh between 20,000 and 40,000 tons each and are slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2027. Altogether, QatarEnergy expects its North Field projects will nearly double Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 million to 142 million tons per year by 2030. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Production Project Database can learn more from detailed project reports on Platform 3 and Platform 4.
The Santos Basin, offshore southern Brazil, has far fewer projects than the Persian Gulf, but trails it in overall investment by just a few billion U.S. dollars. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE:PBR) (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), better known as Petrobras, started construction earlier this year on the Atapu-2 project in the Atapu Field, a FPSO vessel designed to process 225,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) of crude oil and 10 million cubic meters per day of natural gas. The Atapu-2 project follows the development of Atapu-1, which finished construction in 2020 and produces 150,000 BBL/d of crude oil and 6 million cubic meters per day of natural gas. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed project report. QatarEnergy and Petrobras are among the top 10 developers of offshore oil and gas projects worldwide. Other majors to have started construction so far in 2025 include Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) (London, England), Saudi Aramco (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) and TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) (Courbevoie, France).
Offshore wind accounts for the biggest chunk of spending, at US$2.26 trillion. But Burt cautioned that many of these projects likely will be stalled or halted entirely: "IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency, had projected 492 gigawatts [online] by the end of 2035. Recently, they have reduced that by about one-third. So, how much of that will actually move forward is hard to say." Burt said he believes that by the end of 2035, the total gigawatts of offshore wind online likely will be closer to 300 gigawatts, "or maybe a bit less than that. Having said that, the drivers are still there, the largest being the overall movement toward decarbonization, and the favorable government programs and incentives that are driving that."
Burt identified eastern Asia, including China, Japan and Taiwan, as some of the places most likely to see offshore wind energy move forward as planned. Earlier this year, the Taiwanese subsidiary of Orsted A/S (Fredericia, Denmark) started construction on its Greater 4 Offshore Windfarm in the South China Sea, offshore Taiwan, which is expected to generate 588 megawatts (MW) from 42 turbines provided by Siemens AG (Munich, Germany). Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Power Project Database can learn more from a detailed project report. A major "X factor" hovering over offshore development worldwide is the threat of tariffs from Trump and other world leaders--and a potential trade war. "The tariffs have been very much a moving target," Burt said. "It's hard to say, with any certainty, what effect they will have."
Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project and Plant databases can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles. Subscribers can click here for a full list of detailed project reports for active and proposed offshore energy projects worldwide; click here for a full list of reports for oil and gas production projects; and click here for a full list of reports for wind-energy projects. Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
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