New satellite analysis reveals widespread pollution from offshore oil operations threatening ocean and climate
A surge in offshore oil and gas operations is leaving a slick trail of pollution across the world’s oceans, a new report from environmental watchdog SkyTruth has revealed.
The report, titled Exposing the Environmental Costs of Offshore Oil: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Oil Slicks, and Flaring and released today as part of the open ocean project, conducted in partnership with Global Fishing Watch, offers the most comprehensive public dataset to date on offshore oil infrastructure and its findings come at a time when nearly three-quarters of new oil production is taking place offshore, often beyond the reach of effective regulation. Drawing on more than a year’s worth of satellite imagery, the analysis exposes extensive and recurring oil spills, methane flaring and greenhouse gas emissions from both conventional platforms and increasingly common floating production and storage vessels (FPSOs), raising the alarm about the growing environmental toll of the offshore oil and gas industry and its long-term impacts on the climate.
“Despite the urgent climate crisis, offshore oil production continues to expand globally, often with little public scrutiny,” said Christian Thomas, Geospatial Engineer at SkyTruth and co-author of the report. “By making this critical data publicly available, we aim to empower communities, regulators, and advocacy organizations with the information needed to hold polluters accountable and ensure marine protection.”
Chronic slicks, deepening damage
Leveraging satellite imagery for the period spanning from June 2023 to October 2024, SkyTruth’s report reveals at least 216,000 gallons of oil — over 5,000 barrels — floating near offshore infrastructure with many of the slicks originating from FPSOs. In fact, although FPSOs represent only a small fraction of offshore oil infrastructure, the report found they accounted for four of the ten worst offenders globally.
Unlike fixed rigs near shore, FPSOs are often retrofitted tankers operating in deep water. Converted from aging vessels, they pose serious risks to workers, local communities and the environment. Moreover, their remote locations and mobility make them harder to monitor and harder to hold accountable.
But the report goes even further, spotlighting the uneven impact of pollution on the marine ecosystems and communities of low- and middle-income coastal countries. West Africa, a region where the most polluting offshore oil and gas infrastructure is concentrated, is prominently featured in the report with five of the top ten most polluting sites detected in Nigeria. Other countries featured among those most impacted by offshore pollution include Angola, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Norway.
According to SkyTruth, the inequitable distribution of pollution caused by the offshore oil industry further underscores issues related to environmental justice as many low- and middle-income coastal countries lack the regulatory muscle or surveillance capacity to monitor oil and gas operations or push back against international oil firms.
Flaring and shipping: the silent emitters
Beyond oil spills, the report also highlights methane flaring as a major environmental threat, noting that in 2023 over 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas were flared at sea, generating an estimated 60 million metric tons of CO₂. Flaring is often dismissed as an operational necessity or the result of inadequate infrastructure. But SkyTruth warns that its climate impact is anything but negligible, especially when repeated daily across thousands of offshore sites and paired with the emissions from oil tankers and supply vessels that support the installations. In fact, the report notes that vessel traffic to offshore oil and gas facilities generated at least 9 million metric tons of CO₂ in 2023 — a carbon footprint larger than many small countries.
Pulling back the curtain
Until recently, much of this offshore activity unfolded in obscurity. Indeed, efforts to safeguard the ocean have long been hindered by a lack of reliable, real-time information. At the same time, many governments severely lacked the tools or capacity to track where their vessels are fishing, what they are catching or to monitor broader human activity at sea. However, according to Global Fishing Watch chief scientist David Kroodsma, SkyTruth’s work and the open ocean project are together helping to usher in a new era of transparency through open data and advanced monitoring technologies.
“For decades, offshore oil has been operating without an understanding of its environmental footprint,” says Kroodsma, whose collaborative pilot study with research partners recently helped map and estimate the emissions of all industrial vessels operating in the ocean. “Thanks to revolutions in satellite data and artificial intelligence, we are no longer in the dark about what happens at sea – we can monitor and address pollution from the fossil fuel industry. This transparency will better protect the ocean and all who rely on it.”
