Mapping the global fleet of floating oil and gas vessels known as FxOs may help us better understand the overall impact of these oftentimes overlooked structures.

From Homer’s “wine-dark sea” to Carson’s “hidden mysteries far greater than any we have solved,” the world’s oceans have served as a source of wonder, inspiration, and sustenance for humanity for millennia. Our lives are intertwined with the ocean; so often the food we eat, the materials we build with, and the fuel that powers our transportation systems come to us from the ocean. While the sea’s mystery moves us to explore, appreciate, and examine our world, it also acts as a barrier that can obscure destructive events, such as oil spills, and hide an ever-growing oil and gas industry.

Earlier this year, SkyTruth supported the work of Global Fishing Watch to map offshore industry around the world. Through our partnership with Global Fishing Watch on the Open Ocean Project, we are continuing this work and shining a spotlight on the offshore oil and gas industry. The Open Ocean Project seeks to map all industrial human activity. To support this effort, SkyTruth is assessing the full impacts of the production of offshore oil and gas on our ocean and climate. We are currently working to map and monitor the global fleet of vessels—which we collectively refer to as “FxOs”—that are directly engaged in the extraction and storage of oil and gas offshore.

What is an FxO?

Unlike stationary platforms, FxOs are vessels that have been designed or retrofitted to produce and/or store oil or gas. FxOs are effective in deepwater drilling and have lower operational costs than offshore platforms. Despite the imminent threat uncurbed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions pose to our planet’s health, the FxO market is predicted to grow in the coming years.

We include the following vessel types in our FxO designation:

• FSO – Floating Storage and Offloading
• FPSO – Floating Production Storage and Offloading
• FDPSO – Floating Drilling Production Storage and Offloading
• FSRU – Floating Storage Regasification Unit
• FLNG –  Floating Liquefied Natural Gas

We didn’t have a clear picture of where these vessels are located and how many there are anchored across the world, yet they pose a similar risk that stationary oil infrastructure does. In order to better protect our oceans, we realized we needed to identify and map where these FxOs are located so they can be monitored.

What are we working on?

We’re working with our partners at Global Fishing Watch to expand the global dataset of FxO operating locations by mapping offshore infrastructure locations, as well as to examine life and behavior patterns for both FxOs and stationary oil infrastructure.

The first step was identifying known FxOs and their current locations. To accomplish this, our team extracted data from vessel registries and tracking sites to create a list of known FxOs, we compiled identifying information and metadata about them such as their Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) and International Maritime Organization (IMO) numbers, as well information about their current and prior owners. We were then able to analyze AIS broadcasts for these vessels to find locations where they are, or have previously been, engaged in operations.

The dataset we are building incorporates descriptive information about behaviors associated with both FxOs and stationary oil infrastructure, to allow regulatory bodies and civil society organizations to monitor for events of interest or concern. We are documenting the history of slicks associated with FxOs and infrastructure as they are detected by our Cerulean model to identify entities with repeat pollution events. We are also documenting interactions between vessels and FxOs and infrastructure to identify the larger network of ships that support, service, and interact with them.

We are working with partners at the University of California Santa Barbara’s emLab to measure the emissions produced by FxOs during the course of their operation.This includes emissions produced by ships that interact with FxO and emissions of FxOs themselves. Pairing the flaring events captured by satellite imagery with the infrastructure locations helps us better understand patterns of production.

 

Graphic 2 – Animations showing flaring events at FPSOs in the North Sea (Top: Landsat 9, Bottom: Sentinel-2)

Individual FxOs and stationary oil platforms only represent a portion of the impacts associated with oil and gas production offshore. To better understand the fuller picture, we are also beginning to analyze behavioral information about the vessels that support or interact with these structures. We are compiling data about the emissions associated with these vessels, and reviewing their pollution histories in Cerulean, as well as analyzing their AIS broadcast for events of interest (such as atypical gaps or evidence of spoofing).

If you’re interested in exploring our work, we have published the dataset of FxO Operating Locations on our Monitor platform available with a free account. The GFW Offshore Infrastructure data is available via their data page. In 2025, we will publish a white paper that analyzes the climate impacts of the offshore oil and gas industry, along with case studies detailing different behaviors of interest associated with infrastructure and FxOs. As we look ahead to next year, we will be working to measure methane emissions associated with infrastructure and FxOs and building out integrations with Cerulean to create more effective monitoring tools to preserve our oceans.

If you care about our oceans or your work involves protecting marine and coastal ecosystems from the threats of offshore development we would love to hear from you about how we can support your work!