Offshore oil industry

Offshore oil involves exploring, drilling, and producing petroleum from beneath the seabed, heavily concentrated on Australia North West Shelf.
It requires complex infrastructure, such as platforms, and is regulated by agencies like NOPTA and NOPSEMA for environmental approvals.
Offshore drilling is usually done from platforms generically known as mobile offshore drilling units (MODU), which can be of one of several formats, depending
on the water depth.

Offshore oil and gas production is more challenging than land-based installations due to the remote and harsher environment.
Much of the innovation in the offshore petroleum sector concerns overcoming these challenges, including the need to provide very large production facilities.
Production and drilling facilities may be very large and a large investment, such as the Troll A platform standing on a depth of 300 meters.