The High Cost of Offshore Oil and Gas

The document examines the impact of offshore oil and gas activities in the Wider Caribbean, highlighting the ecological threats to coral reefs and mangroves, the economic vulnerability of fossil-fuel-dependent states, and the legal obligations of states to prevent marine pollution and climate harm.

• The Wider Caribbean is experiencing a new wave of offshore oil and gas activity, with Guyana becoming the region's fastest-growing producer and Suriname recording major discoveries, while the region also serves as a hub for US LNG imports and a global oil transport corridor.
• Offshore oil and gas activities pose severe risks to marine ecosystems, with models indicating that approximately 83 percent of the Caribbean Sea could be affected by oil spills from shipping routes. There is currently no regional oil spill monitoring system to track incidents and provide public data.
• Chronic oil pollution has caused documented ecological damage in the region, including reduced coral cover and altered species distribution near refineries in Aruba, and adverse impacts on coral physiology in Panama’s Bahía Las Minas.
• Climate change increases the vulnerability of offshore infrastructure; the IPCC projects that almost all port and harbour facilities in the Wider Caribbean will face future inundation, which threatens tourism, cruise industries, and oil and gas processing facilities.
• The region's economic dependence on ocean-based sectors makes offshore oil and gas a significant risk; tourism contributes over 11.4 percent of the region's total GDP and 2.75 million jobs as of 2023, while small-scale fisheries and aquaculture employ nearly 540,000 people across 17 CRFM member States.
• Economic analysis in Belize suggests that the long-term benefits of protecting the ocean for ecotourism and fisheries outweigh the projected gains from oil extraction.
• International legal opinions from ITLOS and the ICJ establish that States have obligations to prevent marine pollution and GHG emissions, and that failing to protect the climate system from fossil fuel production may be an internationally wrongful act.
• The Cartagena Convention is identified as a governance gap because it focuses on pollution control rather than the prevention of extraction.

APA

Campos, B. (2026). The High Cost of Offshore Oil and Gas. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/High-Cost-of-Offshore-Oil-and-Gas-in-the-Wider-Caribbean.pdf

Chicago

Campos, Bruna. The High Cost of Offshore Oil and Gas. Center for International Environmental Law, 2026. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/High-Cost-of-Offshore-Oil-and-Gas-in-the-Wider-Caribbean.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Campos |first1=Bruna |title=The High Cost of Offshore Oil and Gas |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=April 2026 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/High-Cost-of-Offshore-Oil-and-Gas-in-the-Wider-Caribbean.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{campos2026high, author = {Campos, Bruna}, title = {{The High Cost of Offshore Oil and Gas}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2026}, month = apr, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/High-Cost-of-Offshore-Oil-and-Gas-in-the-Wider-Caribbean.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }