The following is an outline of some of the key conclusions of the "The World Offshore Drilling Report 2003-2007" recently published by energy analysts Douglas-Westwood. Offshore drilling has, for the last 30 years, been the driving force behind growth in oil and gas industry activity and production. Beginning in the 1960s, after global opportunities on land had begun to decline, offshore drilling levels grew rapidly, peaking in 1981 following two decades of technology improvements and a decade of energy price rises. Since then, offshore drilling levels have broadly stabilized on a flat trend, albeit moving up or down in response to fluctuations in energy demand and oil price.