The latest leak detected at a gas project off West Africa and the recent North Sea collision of an oil products tanker underscore that the dangers of offshore oil and gas activity abound but too often go unrecognized.
WASHINGTON, March 19, 2025 — As fossil fuel companies take their operations to ever deeper waters, a new publication from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Offshore, Off-Limits: Making Oceans Off-Limits to Offshore Oil and Gas, exposes the many risks of offshore oil and gas activity at every stage and outlines legal tools to hold industry actors accountable and protect oceans and coastal communities worldwide.
From seismic exploration and drilling in the seabed to coastal processing and overseas transport of fossil fuels, offshore operations are inherently dangerous. Just this month, there was a gas leak detected at a floating facility in the waters of West Africa and a collision between an oil products tanker and a cargo ship in the North Sea. Risks from accidents like these and from routine operations loom large, as offshore projects make up more than 30% of global oil and gas production, and fully 40% of maritime trade consists of transporting fossil fuel products around the globe, through fragile marine ecosystems. Yet rather than put an end to offshore oil and gas activity, too many governments and companies are still expanding fossil fuel production including at sea.
“The impacts of oil and gas activity in and on the ocean and coastlines are inherently transboundary in nature and of grave global concern,” says Upasana Khatri, series author and Senior Attorney at CIEL. “But because offshore activity is often out of sight and out of mind, we don’t get the full picture of its ecological, human rights, and climate impacts. This publication aims to improve our understanding of the risks of offshore oil and gas activity and the corresponding duties of State and corporate actors to refrain from activities that foreseeably threaten oceans, their marine biodiversity, and the climate and communities that depend on their protection.”
Offshore oil and gas production platforms have enormous climate footprints due to greenhouse gas emissions from gas flaring, methane leaks from offshore infrastructure, and the massive amounts of energy needed to power operations. Yet, many of these emissions are underreported due to the difficulty of monitoring installations at sea. As CIEL’s analysis underlines, these climate consequences compound the local ecological impacts of offshore projects, such as air pollution, water contamination, and disturbance of marine habitats.
“International and domestic laws developed to protect the environment and human rights can provide a critical line of defense against the threat that offshore oil and gas poses to the ocean, the climate, and all life that depends on both,” says Nikki Reisch, Director of CIEL’s Climate and Energy program. “From South Africa and Australia, to Argentina, Alaska, Nigeria and the United Kingdom, we are seeing an increasing number of lawsuits challenging offshore oil and gas projects and holding polluters accountable. The evidence is clear: to ensure a livable future for all, we need to make oceans everywhere off-limits to oil and gas.”
Read the full analysis here.
Media Contact:
For media inquiries, to arrange an interview, or to request more information, please contact: Alexandra Colón-Amil at [email protected]