Oceangraphic Magazine
07/06/2025
by Rob Hutchins
Offshore oil and gas activities pose a significant threat to marine biodiversity at every stage of the industry – from exploration and extraction to shipping and usage – according to new research launched this week which shows that a significant percentage of marine protected areas overlap with oil and gas blocks in frontier regions.
Published by Earth Insight, new mapping and analysis visualises the threats posed by all future offshore fossil fuel projects to frontier biodiversity hotspots and coastal communities across the pantropics. It’s found that oil and gas blocks cover over 2.7 million-square-kilometres in these case study frontier regions – an area roughly the size of Argentina.
Among the findings, the map has revealed that some 100,000-square-kilometres (19%) of coastal and Marine Protected Areas and 70,000-square-kilometres (11%) of Important Marine Mammal Areas and 52,000-square-kilometres (14%) of marine and coastal Key Biodiversity Areas overlap with oil and gas blocks.
Read the full article on Oceanographic