VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Global offshore oil production in 2015 was at the highest level since 2010, accounting for nearly 30% of total global oil output, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last week.

Offshore oil production increased in both 2014 and 2015, reversing consecutive yearly declines from 2010 to 2013. Output from onshore tight oil plays has increased faster over the past several years and accounts for an increasing amount of total oil production, the agency said in its ‘Today in Energy’ report.

According to the EIA, more than 27-million barrels of oil were produced offshore in 2015 in more than 50 different countries.

Global oil output is expected to remain high in 2016, as many oil-producing nations continue to increase production. The EIA noted that a significant amount of global offshore production is concentrated in a few countries, with five countries providing 43% of total offshore oil output, namely Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Mexico, Norway and the US.

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Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest offshore producer and has several large offshore oilfields, including the Safaniya oilfield, which produces between 1.1-million and 1.5-million barrels a day and is the highest-producing offshore field in the world. Saudi Arabia is responsible for 13% of the world’s total offshore output, the EIA stated.

Offshore production grew by 58% between 2005 and 2015, making Brazil the second-largest offshore producer in 2015. This growth was driven mainly by the expansion of deepwater pre-salt projects, which should support small production increases in 2016 and 2017.

The third-largest offshore producer, Mexico, has seen increasingly smaller yields from offshore assets, with production falling by 31% from 2005 to 2015. Mexico, however, still produced nearly two-million barrels a day in 2015, accounting for 7% of global offshore production.

Despite Norway’s offshore production falling 28% from 2005 to 2010, it has remained steady since 2010, with 7% of global offshore production originating from Norwegian fields. Norwegian output is forecast to rise slightly in 2016 and to fall slightly in 2017.

Meanwhile, the EIA said recent strong production in the Gulf of Mexico had increased US offshore production.

From 2005 to 2015, total offshore output grew by 6.5%.

“With several large projects coming on line in 2016 and 2017, the Gulf of Mexico is expected to see production climb by about 100 000 bbl/d in 2016, and by an additional 200 000 bbl/d in 2017,” stated analyst Matthew Manning.

By contrast, US onshore output is expected to fall by 800 000 bbl/d in 2016 and by a further 300 000 bbl/d in 2017.

The analyst advised that most offshore production is in shallow waters, which are cheaper and less technically challenging, but that there has also been a move toward deepwater projects. “Exploratory drilling in deeper water is costlier and more complex for companies, but technology advancements and the exhaustion of shallower prospects have led companies to explore increasingly deeper waters, particularly in Brazil and in the Gulf of Mexico,” Manning said.