Excerpt:
A groundbreaking investigation led by SkyTruth has plotted and ranked the world’s most polluting offshore oil and gas facilities using advanced satellite technology to highlight the worst persistent oil slicks and greenhouse gas emissions around the world…
Researchers from the global non-profit, SkyTruth have published a new report, identifying and exposing the biggest sources of pollution from offshore oil, including oil leaks, transportation emissions, and methane flaring, as well as the most polluted locations across the global ocean.
This groundbreaking investigation has plotted and ranked the world’s most polluting offshore oil and gas facilities using advanced satellite technology to highlight the worst persistent oil slicks and greenhouse gas emissions around the world.
Until now, this alarming pattern of environmental damage wrought by the oil and gas industry has gone largely undetected. The report – Exposing the Environmental Costs of Offshore Oil: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Oil Slicks, and Flaring – provides the first-ever public data about threats from offshore oil infrastructure. And it’s just been brought to the world’s stage.
The report has been launched to coincide with the 2025 Our Ocean Conference where the team behind the investigation has been presenting its findings as part of the Digital Oceans: Actions for Advancing Sustainable Ocean through Digital Technology theme of the annual event.
Based on 16 months of monitoring, the report comes with a series of downloadable maps and charts of the top polluters across the globe. It’s research that has been conducted using Cerulean, the world’s first free, publicly available technology developed by SkyTruth that uses artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to track ocean oil pollution and identify the potential sources of it.
“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 organisations with the information needed to hold polluters accountable and ensure marine protection.”
Among the report’s key findings, several sources of what it has called chronic oil pollution have been identified. Ten of these stood out in particular for the frequency and extent of oil slicks, collectively responsible for at least 216,000 gallons of oil (over 5,100 barrels) detected on ocean surfaces. Floating production and storage vessels also rank among the most severe polluters, accounting for four out of ten of the most polluting assets observed globally, despite making up a small fraction of the total infrastructure…
