While the ongoing trade wars create significant uncertainty among project developers across the offshore energy spectrum, with supply chain costs bound to see another spike thanks to tariff woes, Rystad Energy, an energy market intelligence group, has pointed out that global oil and gas operators are prioritizing low-risk, low-cost near-field or infrastructure-led exploration (ILX) prospects as budgets tighten, rather than the more expensive high-risk hydrocarbon exploration plays.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing tariff tug-of-war , Rystad underlines that the oil and gas explorers have zeroed in on near-field plays as prospects shrink under the weight of increasing financial constraints, a low commodity price environment, and a declining pool of prospective basins.