Which country is the largest offshore producer?
If you answered the US, you are way off. Brazil is a near miss, but it is still second to Saudi Arabia.
The US Energy Information Administration ranked offshore Saudi production No. 1 in the world with 13% of the globe’s offshore output, including its Safaniya field, which it ranks as No. 1 in the world at 1.1 to 1.5 million B/D in oil and other liquids.
While Brazil and the US, ranked 5th, get attention for deepwater technology developments, “most offshore production is in shallow waters,” according to the report, which was based on data from Rystad Energy.
The five top offshore producing nations produce 43% of all the oil offshore.
- Saudi Arabia. The world’s largest offshore producer with 13% of the global total has several large offshore oil fields, including the Safaniya, which produces between 1.1 and 1.5 million B/D and is the highest-producing offshore field in the world.
- Brazil. Offshore production grew by 58% between 2005 and 2015, making Brazil the second-largest offshore producer in 2015. This growth was driven predominately by the expansion of deepwater pre-salt projects, which should support small production increases this year and next.
- Mexico. The third-largest offshore producer has seen increasingly smaller yields from offshore assets, with production falling by 31% from 2005 to 2015. Mexico, however, still produced nearly 2 million B/D in 2015, accounting for 7% of global offshore production.
- Norway. Although offshore production declined 28% from 2005 to 2010, it has remained steady since 2010 with 7% of the global offshore production from Norwegian fields. Norwegian output is forecast to rise slightly in 2016 and to fall slightly in 2017.
- United States. From 2005 to 2015, total offshore production grew by 6.5%. With several large projects coming online in 2016 and 2017, US Gulf of Mexico production is expected to climb by about 0.3 million B/D during that period. By contrast, US onshore production is expected to fall by 1.1 million B/D over those years.
