Offshore Energy Production Research Articles

Maritime Security and the Wind: Threats and Risks to Offshore Renewable Energy Infrastructure

Abstract Offshore wind energy production has seen a significant expansion in recent years. With technologies rapidly improving and prices dropping, it is now one of the key instruments in the green energy transition. The implications of offshore wind farm expansion for maritime security and ocean governance have, so far, received sparse attention in the literature. This article offers one of the first thorough analyses of the security of offshore wind farms and related installations, such as underwater electricity cables, energy islands, and hydrogen plants. The technical vulnerabilities of wind farm systems is reviewed and threats from terrorism, crime and State hostilities, including physical and cyber risk scenarios, are discussed. The expansion of green offshore energy production must keep pace with the changing threat landscape that follows from it. Prospective solutions for the protection of wind farms systems, including surveillance, patrols and self-protection are discussed. The current repertoire of maritime security solutions is in many ways capable of dealing with the threats and risks effectively if adjusted accordingly. The analysis builds important new bridges between debates in energy security and maritime security, as well as the implications of climate change adaption and mitigation for security at sea.

The operational CMEMS wind wave forecasting system of the Black Sea

ABSTRACT Accurate wind wave data is essential for ship navigation, safety at sea, and offshore energy production. Access to real-time and forecast wave data, with quality metrics, is vital for operational services. The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) operational wave forecasting system of the Black Sea relies on the third-generation WAve Model (WAM). It offers a 1-day hindcast and 10-day forecast at 2.5 km spatial and 1-hour temporal resolutions. The model is driven by ECMWF IFS010 winds as well as surface currents and sea surface heights from a hydrodynamic model. The model's validation against satellite and buoy data indicates good overall performance. For two-year satellite significant wave heights, error statistics include a root mean square difference (RMSD) of 27 cm, a bias of – 16 cm, a scatter index of 0.22, and a correlation coefficient of 0.93. Wave buoy comparisons show a RMSD of 1.09 s for the TM02 period and a 30.5° standard deviation of the mean direction. The model performs well during storm events and provides reliable wave forecasts for up to four days, despite slightly underestimating the significant wave height. The driving wind fields generally perform well, but assessments reveal shortcomings along the coasts.

Challenges and strategic solutions in commissioning and start-up of subsea production systems

The commissioning and start-up of subsea production systems represent critical phases in offshore oil and gas operations, where meticulous planning and execution are essential for success. This abstract presents an overview of the challenges encountered during these phases and proposes strategic solutions to address them effectively. Environmental factors such as deepwater operations and subsea geology pose significant challenges to commissioning and start-up activities. Technical challenges include ensuring equipment reliability and seamless integration of control systems in harsh underwater conditions. Operational challenges such as remote monitoring and intervention and personnel safety further compound the complexities of these operations. Strategic solutions to mitigate these challenges include advanced planning and simulation using digital twin technology and scenario planning. Enhanced risk management strategies, including contingency planning and early detection systems, are vital to anticipate and manage potential issues effectively. Collaborative partnerships between stakeholders, including suppliers and cross-disciplinary teams, foster innovation and enhance project resilience. Drawing from successful case studies and lessons learned, this abstract emphasizes the importance of proactive planning, risk mitigation, and collaborative approaches in ensuring the successful commissioning and start-up of subsea production systems. By implementing these strategic solutions, operators can enhance operational efficiency, minimize downtime, and improve safety outcomes, ultimately contributing to the long-term viability and sustainability of offshore energy production.

Unlock insights from hydrographic data with GeoAI

Hydrographic offices are collecting hundreds of terabytes of data every day. This information not only comes from bathymetry data sensors, but also from weather stations, radar, ships, satellites, aerial and drone imagery, and other sensors. With all this data pouring in, hydrographic offices need to be able to automate time consuming processes and adopt modern technologies. One such technology is GeoAI, the intersection of spatial data and artificial intelligence. GeoAI can be considered an enabling technology, in that it allows you collect the data once and apply different algorithms to the data for it to be for multiple purposes. Data collected from multibeam echo sounders can be analyzed to update ENCs by finding new obstructions such as rocks and shipwrecks. Using that same point cloud, GeoAI can then be used to understand marine animal habitat by identifying underwater structures and seafloor patterns that lead to increased biodiversity. GeoAI can be used to aid in coastal resilience projects by analyzing aerial imagery from drones captured in multiple seasons and years for change detection, highlight the areas that need the most attention. Machine Learning, a part of the GeoAI portfolio, can additionally use that same imagery data set to run predictive analytics, highlighting areas that are susceptible to erosion, flooding, and landslides. Many of the same GeoAI algorithms can be used to help maximize investments in the blue economy by bringing location intelligence to the decision-making process. Models can predict the best locations to establish aquaculture, Marine Protected Areas, and offshore energy production. In addition to its applications in coastal resilience projects and maximizing investments in the blue economy, GeoAI offers a wide array of benefits in the domain of hydrospatial data management. The integration of GeoAI in hydrographic offices revolutionizes the way hydrographic data is processed and utilized. Traditionally, processing and interpreting vast amounts of hydrospatial data, including bathymetry, weather, radar, and imagery, required extensive human resources and time-consuming manual efforts. However, with GeoAI, these offices can automate complex tasks and streamline data analysis, significantly improving efficiency and accuracy.

The current policyscape affecting land-sea interactions in the European Union

Coastal areas are the most populated and exploited territories by human activities, whose intensification strains terrestrial and marine ecosystems' environmental health and biodiversity. These anthropic dynamics interact with each other and with natural resources and geochemical processes that are fundamental assets for the land-sea continuum. These interconnections are addressed by the concept of Land-Sea Interactions. Although their consideration is required in the planning of the maritime space of European Union waters, clear indications of what exactly they comprise and how to manage them are yet to be produced. The scope of the research is to provide an overview of the current trans-sectoral policyscape of existing European acts that support the management of land-sea interactions. The resulting policy mapping, organized according to human activity clusters and common policy goals, describes a complex interlinkage among regulations and directives that also helps highlight the policy gaps to date in developing a blue economy (e.g., tourism and offshore energy production).

Floating wind turbine motion signature in the far-wake spectral content – a wind tunnel experiment

Abstract. The growing interest in floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) is rooted in the potential source of increased offshore energy production. As the technology is still in a pre-industrial state, several questions remain to be addressed where little field data are available. This study uses physical modelling at a reduced scale to investigate the signature of the floating motions into the wake spectral content of a simplified FOWT model. A wind turbine model based on the actuator disc concept is placed in an atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel and subjected to a range of surge, heave and pitch motions. The signatures of idealised sinusoidal motion and realistic broadband motion on the model’s wake at distances of 4.6 D (D being the disc diameter) and 8 D are measured through the use of a rake of single hot wires. The spectral analysis shows that harmonic motion leaves clear signatures in the far wake's energy spectra, mainly in the top tip region, while broadband motion does not leave easily detectable signatures.

Minimal chemical pollution, increased offshore wind farms and energy production sustainability

Minimal chemical pollution, increased offshore wind farms and energy production sustainability Coordinator of the Anemoi project, Bavo De Witte (ILVO), discusses the path to minimal chemical pollution and increasing the sustainability of offshore wind energy. Offshore wind energy production is a relatively sustainable yet fast-growing industry, contributing to the UN development goals on green energy and climate actions. Europe’s total offshore wind power capacity as of September 2023 is 32 GW (1), only 20% of the European target to produce >150 GW by 2030. The vast increase in offshore energy production urged different European countries to monitor the potential effects of offshore wind farms (OWFs) on the marine ecosystem, including the impact of underwater noise, the introduction of novel habitats, and the exclusion of fisheries. However, the potential risk of chemical emissions by OWF structures remains largely unknown though estimated to be small.

Plausible futures for the Norwegian offshore energy sector: Business as usual, harvest or rebuild?

The global energy transition from fossil to low-carbon energy challenges the future of the Norwegian petroleum sector, a major factor in the country's economy, now facing financial climate risk and long-term declining demand, particularly for gas to the EU. What energy policies can assist transition into a low-carbon society? We explore three investment scenarios for the Norwegian offshore energy sector from 2020 to 2070: 1) Business as usual, 2) Increasing cash-flow by harvesting existing petroleum fields and cutting investments (Harvest-and-Exit), or 3) Rebuilding with green offshore energy investments. In a new economic model, we compare impacts on key macro- and sector-economic variables. We find that rebuilding by investing moderately in green offshore energy production could reverse the extra job decline that a quicker phase-out of petroleum investments would incur. The impacts on the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund - Government Pension Fund Global - and on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita are insignificant to 2050 and positive by 2070. The simulated investments and economic results can be compared with observations to constitute forward-looking indicators for energy transitioning in producer countries.

Alternatives for Transport, Storage in Port and Bunkering Systems for Offshore Energy to Green Hydrogen

Offshore electricity production, mainly by wind turbines, and, eventually, floating PV, is expected to increase renewable energy generation and their dispatchability. In this sense, a significant part of this offshore electricity would be directly used for hydrogen generation. The integration of offshore energy production into the hydrogen economy is of paramount importance for both the techno-economic viability of offshore energy generation and the hydrogen economy. An analysis of this integration is presented. The analysis includes a discussion about the current state of the art of hydrogen pipelines and subsea cables, as well as the storage and bunkering system that is needed on shore to deliver hydrogen and derivatives. This analysis extends the scope of most of the previous works that consider port-to-port transport, while we report offshore to port. Such storage and bunkering will allow access to local and continental energy networks, as well as to integrate offshore facilities for the delivery of decarbonized fuel for the maritime sector. The results of such state of the art suggest that the main options for the transport of offshore energy for the production of hydrogen and hydrogenated vectors are through direct electricity transport by subsea cables to produce hydrogen onshore, or hydrogen transport by subsea pipeline. A parametric analysis of both alternatives, focused on cost estimates of each infrastructure (cable/pipeline) and shipping has been carried out versus the total amount of energy to transport and distance to shore. For low capacity (100 GWh/y), an electric subsea cable is the best option. For high-capacity renewable offshore plants (TWh/y), pipelines start to be competitive for distances above approx. 750 km. Cost is highly dependent on the distance to land, ranging from 35 to 200 USD/MWh.

Novel Ocean Wave Height and Energy Spectrum Forecasting Approaches: An Application of Semi-Analytical and Machine Learning Models

Accurate and reliable wave forecasting is crucial for optimizing the performance of various marine operations, such as offshore energy production, shipping, and fishing. Meanwhile, predicting wave height and wave energy is crucial for achieving sustainability as a renewable energy source, as it enables the harnessing of the power of wave energy efficiently based on the water-energy nexus. Advanced wave forecasting models, such as machine learning models and the semi-analytical approach, have been developed to provide more accurate predictions of ocean waves. In this study, the Sverdrup Munk Bretschneider (SMB) semi-analytical approach, Emotional Artificial Neural Network (EANN) approach, and Wavelet Artificial Neural Network (WANN) approach will be used to estimate ocean wave parameters in the Gulf of Mexico and Aleutian Basin. The accuracy and reliability of these approaches will be evaluated, and the spatial and temporal variability of the wave field will be investigated. The available wave characteristics are used to generate hourly, 12-hourly, and daily datasets. The WANN and SMB model shows good performance in the daily prediction of the significant wave height in both case studies. In the SMB model, specifically on a daily time scale, the Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and the peak deviation coefficient (DCpeak) were determined to be 0.62 and 0.54 for the Aleutian buoy and 0.64 and 0.55 for the Gulf of Mexico buoy, respectively, for significant wave height. In the context of the WANN model and in the testing phase at the daily time scale, the NSE and DCpeak indices exhibit values of 0.85 and 0.61 for the Aleutian buoy and 0.72 and 0.61 for the Gulf of Mexico buoy, respectively, while the EANN model is a strong tool in hourly wave height prediction (Aleutian buoy (NSEEANN = 0.60 and DCpeakEANN = 0.88), Gulf of Mexico buoy (NSEEANN = 0.80 and DCpeakEANN = 0.82)). In addition, the findings pertaining to the energy spectrum density demonstrate that the EANN model exhibits superior performance in comparison to the WANN and SMB models, particularly with regard to accurately estimating the peak of the spectrum (Aleutian buoy (DCpeakEANN= 0.41), Gulf of Mexico buoy (DCpeakEANN = 0.59)).

Human Factors Issues and Trends in Offshore Operational Environments

What is the evolving role of Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E) practitioners in the design of increasingly automated offshore and maritime work environments? This panel will highlight technological trends transforming operational paradigms in the maritime sector, specifically, offshore energy production and shipping, in relation to HF/E and work environment design. The panel will be a discussion hosted by the Environmental Design Technical Group in collaboration with the Safety Technical Group and the Society of Petroleum Engineers Human Factors Technical Section. Panelists include three experts from industry and academia. Discussion participants will include HFES attendees in the audience including industry practitioners, students, and members from academia and government agencies. The discussion will begin with brief presentations by each panelist on the state-of-the-science of HF/E practice in offshore operational environments and emerging trends related to automation, remote supervisory control and related HF/E challenges, and followed by a moderated question and answer forum.

Digital Twins of the Ocean can foster a sustainable blue economy in a protected marine environment

While the field of hydrography is crucial for maritime navigation and other maritime applications, oceanography is the field that provides the relevant data and knowledge for predicting climate change, monitoring marine resources, and exploring marine life. Digital ocean twins combine these two exciting fields and combine ocean observations and ocean models to establish virtual representations of a real world system, in this case the ocean or an ocean area, as well as assets in the ocean and processes within ocean industries or the natural environment. They have the potential to play a critical role in optimising and supporting sustainable ocean development. Digital Twins are synchronised with their real-world counterparts at a specific frequency and fidelity. They can provide valuable insights into the ocean's state and its evolution over time, which can be used to support decision-making in ocean governance and various ocean-related industries. Digital ocean twins can transform human ocean interactions by accelerating holistic understanding, optimal decision-making, and effective interventions. Digital twins of the ocean use ocean observations, historical and forecast data to represent the past and present and simulate possible future scenarios. They are motivated by outcomes, tailored to use cases, powered by integration, built on data, guided by domain knowledge, and implemented in IT systems. In this article, we explore the benefits of digital twins for the ocean, the challenges in developing them, and the current state of the art in ocean digital twin technology. One of the main benefits of digital ocean twins is their ability to provide accurate predictions of ocean conditions under expected interventions. Their information can be used to support decision- making in various applications including ocean-related industries, such as fishing, shipping, and offshore energy production. Additionally, digital twins can help to improve our understanding of the ocean's complex processes and their interactions with human activities, such as climate change, pollution, resource extraction and overfishing. Researchers and IT companies are combining various technologies and data sources, such as the Internet of Things for ocean observations, state of the art data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data spaces and vocabularies into digital ocean twins to contextualise data, improve the accuracy of ocean models and make ocean knowledge more accessible to a wide range of users.

Offshore energy structures in the North Sea: Past, present and future

Offshore man-made structures (MMS) such as oil and gas (O&G) platforms, pipelines and wind energy developments are present in shelf seas worldwide and can potentially influence ecosystem dynamics and services. The number, type and age of these structures is changing as the wind energy sector expands whilst O&G structures reach the end of economic viability and are decommissioned. The North Sea is an area which supports major offshore energy production and consequently has a particularly high density of MMS which, according to the OSPAR 98/3 decision, will need to be removed after cessation of operations. To inform effective policy decisions, a comprehensive understanding of the impact of MMS on North Sea ecosystem is required. A major challenge to this is the lack of a comprehensive MMS database with up-to-date and accurate metadata (e.g. structure type, installation date) and locations. We found that existing databases are spatially restricted and/or contain conflicting locational data and, when present, metadata. When used in scientific studies to support policy decisions, such gaps and errors limit inference and could lead to spurious results. Here we develop a comprehensive spatial database of MMS including O&G platforms, pipelines and wind turbines in the North Sea. This allowed examination of temporal trends in how North Sea MMS have changed in number, type and location. The generated database will be useful for a range of stakeholders ranging from ecologists, engineers, policymakers, industry advisors and geoscientists. Indeed, such a database is fundamental for robust research studies required to inform effective and sustainable policy decisions, including review of the OSPAR 98/3 regulation.

New approach to prioritize wind farm sites by data envelopment analysis method: A case study

The offshore wind potential estimated at 199 GW is analyzed in this study on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast in Morocco, through a dynamic and static study. The Data Envelopment Analysis method (DEA) is used in this study to list and classify 14 offshore sites according to six criteria in order to prioritize their suitability for a wind farm. The most important criterion is the wind power density calculated by the Weibull distribution function over the period 2016–2020. The study showed that the power density varies considerably between sites, with an annual maximum value of 436.09 W/m2 recorded in Dakhla and another minimum of 15.02 W/m2 recorded in Casablanca. The application of the new approach based on the DEA method revealed favorable sites with high potential for offshore energy production, in particular in Dakhla which occupied the first place with a score of 4.77 followed closely by Laâyoune with 3.9 then Tanger with 3.15, while the sites of Kenitra, Rabat and Casablanca recorded low scores with respectively 0.61, 0.58 and 0.55 each. On the other hand, the study of the continental shelf revealed the presence of a topographic variation of the seabed, which favored the establishment of this technology.

Theoretical evaluation of the power efficiency of a moored hybrid floating platform for wind and wave energy production in the Greek seas

<abstract> <p>In this study, an extreme value analysis of wind and wave parameters is presented for three specific locations in the Greek seas that are known to be advantageous in terms of joint power production (both offshore wind and wave) and bathymetric conditions. The analysis is conducted via the Peak-Over-Threshold method, examining wind speed, significant wave height and peak wave period data from the ERA5 reanalysis dataset. Moreover, a multi-purpose floating platform suitable for offshore energy production is presented, which combines wind and wave energy resources exploitation and can be adequately utilized at the selected locations. The analysis is built to incorporate the solutions of the diffraction, motion-dependent and pressure-dependent radiation problems around the floating structure, along with the mooring line and wind turbine (WT) characteristics. Subsequently, a coupled hydro-aero-elastic analysis was performed in the frequency domain, while a dynamic analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the mooring characteristics. Lastly, offshore wind output and absorbed wave energy values were estimated, and different types of mooring systems were compared in terms of efficiency. It has been concluded that the wind energy capacity factor is higher than 50% in all the examined locations, and by the mooring system comparison, the tension-leg platform (TLP) represents the best-case scenario for wave energy absorption.</p> </abstract>

The Interplay Between EU Law and Regional Sea Conventions: Shaping Environmental Protection in Relation to Offshore Energy Production Across Europe?

Despite the EU’s ambitious goals regarding the expansion of marine renewables as a promising climate mitigation and energy security measure, the majority of hydrocarbon exploitation continues occurring offshore with more than 500 oil and gas installations operating in European seas. Given the grave environmental risks these activities pose, the EU has developed secondary rules with implications for the regulation of offshore energy generation. These normative developments have added an extra layer of regional, supra-national regulation of ocean energy production across European seas, which necessarily interacts with the simultaneously applicable rules under regional sea agreements. The article examines the implications of the normative interplay between EU law and regional sea agreements in terms of shaping the environmental regulation of offshore energy production across Europe. In that respect, it explores whether EU law instruments and the EU’s sophisticated institutional framework can enhance the rules and standards under the regional sea agreements, in terms both of adding normative content to them and supporting their enforcement. In light of the mutual cross-fertilization between the two applicable regimes, the article equally looks into the normative impact of regional sea conventions on the EU legal framework and its implementation in the context of offshore energy production. Offshore energy, regional sea agreements, normative interactions, marine environmental protection

Oceanic records of North American bats and implications for offshore wind energy development in the United States.

Offshore wind energy is a growing industry in the United States, and renewable energy from offshore wind is estimated to double the country's total electricity generation. There is growing concern that land‐based wind development in North America is negatively impacting bat populations, primarily long‐distance migrating bats, but the impacts to bats from offshore wind energy are unknown. Bats are associated with the terrestrial environment, but have been observed over the ocean. In this review, we synthesize historic and contemporary accounts of bats observed and acoustically recorded in the North American marine environment to ascertain the spatial and temporal distribution of bats flying offshore. We incorporate studies of offshore bats in Europe and of bat behavior at land‐based wind energy studies to examine how offshore wind development could impact North American bat populations. We find that most offshore bat records are of long‐distance migrating bats and records occur during autumn migration, the period of highest fatality rates for long‐distance migrating bats at land‐based wind facilities in North America. We summarize evidence that bats may be attracted to offshore turbines, potentially increasing their exposure to risk of collision. However, higher wind speeds offshore can potentially reduce the amount of time that bats are exposed to risk. We identify knowledge gaps and hypothesize that a combination of operational minimization strategies may be the most effective approach for reducing impacts to bats and maximizing offshore energy production.

International Protection of Foreign Investments in Offshore Energy Production and Marine Environmental Protection: Birds of a Feather or Frenemies Forever?

Initially, international investment law and international law on the protection of the marine environment were two branches that developed separately. As these international regimes mature, they often speak to the same facts, bringing about their ever-increasing normative interaction, way before any disputes arise. The regulation of investments in offshore energy production is chosen as a case study because it exemplifies how these two bodies of international law can interact. The article does not conceptualize these two international regimes as inherently antagonistic but instead highlights their potential complementarity. Yet, it is primarily the issue of normative conflicts between those two regimes which has generated heated scholarly debates. Against the backdrop of sweeping critiques about the potential ‘regulatory chill’ of international investment agreements and their investor-State dispute settlement mechanism, this contribution examines whether arbitral tribunals have interpreted and applied investment rules in a fashion that can unduly restrict the discretion of host States to honour their marine environmental obligations. First, it explores why and how international investment law and marine environmental law interact and influence each other’s implementation. In a second step, the article investigates the impact (if any) of investment obligations on the discretion of host States to comply with their marine environmental protection obligations. Adopting a forward-looking perspective, it finally enquires into the potential impact of the reformed provisions under new generation IIAs on the right and duty of States to take all necessary measures to protect the marine environment against pollution from offshore energy production activities.

Accelerating deployment of offshore wind energy alter wind climate and reduce future power generation potentials

The European Union has set ambitious CO2 reduction targets, stimulating renewable energy production and accelerating deployment of offshore wind energy in northern European waters, mainly the North Sea. With increasing size and clustering, offshore wind farms (OWFs) wake effects, which alter wind conditions and decrease the power generation efficiency of wind farms downwind become more important. We use a high-resolution regional climate model with implemented wind farm parameterizations to explore offshore wind energy production limits in the North Sea. We simulate near future wind farm scenarios considering existing and planned OWFs in the North Sea and assess power generation losses and wind variations due to wind farm wake. The annual mean wind speed deficit within a wind farm can reach 2–2.5 ms−1 depending on the wind farm geometry. The mean deficit, which decreases with distance, can extend 35–40 km downwind during prevailing southwesterly winds. Wind speed deficits are highest during spring (mainly March–April) and lowest during November–December. The large-size of wind farms and their proximity affect not only the performance of its downwind turbines but also that of neighboring downwind farms, reducing the capacity factor by 20% or more, which increases energy production costs and economic losses. We conclude that wind energy can be a limited resource in the North Sea. The limits and potentials for optimization need to be considered in climate mitigation strategies and cross-national optimization of offshore energy production plans are inevitable.

Regionalism and Marine Environmental Protection: the Case of Offshore Energy Production

At the global level, the rules which directly or coincidentally regulate offshore energy production activities stand out as being mostly sectoral and recommendatory. Global agreements do not offer concrete environmental standards applicable to offshore energy production activities, but they create normatively modest obligations of conduct, which allow States wide discretion in their implementation. By contrast, most of the specific environmental rules and standards concerning energy activities at sea have been developed at the regional level. The role of regional agreements appears to be embraced by UNCLOS, which accommodates and, in certain instances, encourages the development of regional agreements for the protection of the marine environment. The multitude of references to regional rules and forms of cooperation in UNCLOS is indicative of the significance of regionalism to address certain sources of pollution. However, not all energy-producing marine regions are subject to normatively specific rules and standards to regulate these activities. Theoretically, the absence of such standards might have significant environmental repercussions. Given the interconnectedness of seas and oceans, the success of a regional agreement in achieving its environmental objectives depends considerably on the consistent efforts in the other areas of the world to equally protect and preserve the marine environment. Against that background, it is crucial to examine not only the relevance of regional agreements for the geographical areas they were developed to protect but also whether the regional rules and standards can offer solutions, which may be applicable in other marine regions. In particular, it is important to assess the legal relevance of these region-specific rules and standards for other marine areas, for which there are no specific rules on the environmental regulation of offshore energy production activities. The aim of this paper is two-fold as it purports to examine the role of regional agreements for the regulation of offshore energy production activities both within and beyond their geographical scope of application. On that account, the contribution first examines the role of regional agreements in identifying, adapting and updating the standard of diligence that States must exercise in the respective marine areas. In that respect, it briefly discusses the relevant normative and institutional developments in four selected regions, namely the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North-East Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Drawing on these developments, it extrapolates the significant contribution of the regional agreements in developing future-proof and inclusive regulation of offshore energy production activities. In addition, the paper posits that insofar as these regional agreements could inform the interpretation of the duty to protect the marine environment in the context of offshore energy production under UNCLOS, they could also shape the required standard of care at the global level. For that reason, it discusses whether, and under which conditions, regional rules and standards inform and enrich the interpretation and implementation of the duty to protect the marine environment under UNCLOS.