Letter from London: Deepwater brimming with confidence for 2025

With Namibia, Guyana and Brazil playing starring roles and important innovations being developed, business as usual has never looked so good

Drilling offshore to depths beyond 1,000 metres is a complicated and costly pursuit, with fewer than ten energy companies accounting for the majority of the exploration. But the deepwater drilling sector continues to gather momentum this decade, and 2025 looks as if it will be another strong year—helped by new breakthroughs in geology and technology. Just follow the money. Some $43b of oil and gas project capex was committed to deep and ultra-deepwater fields in 2024 via project FIDs, according to Clarksons research. This was the highest capex commitment on deepwater since 2013. The deepwater share of capex was 53% in 2024, which is the highest on record, although overall capex commitments t