Global offshore energy insurance premiums edged up just 0.1% to USD 4.8 billion in 2025, as intense competition and rising smaller claims squeezed underwriting profitability. Hellenic Shipping News, reporting findings from the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI), said the limited premium growth largely reflected exchange-rate movements and shifts in the business insured, rather than expansion of the underlying market.
Presenting the figures at IUMI’s annual conference in Rotterdam, Offshore Energy Committee chair Michele Cibrario warned that the global total probably contained some double-counting linked to domestic policies placed in London and retrocession arrangements. London, encompassing Lloyd’s and the International Underwriting Association, retained roughly 60% of worldwide offshore energy premiums, with its share broadly unchanged during 2025. Regional increases also needed to be assessed against currency effects and international reinsurance arrangements.
Insurance capacity continued to outstrip demand, while many insurers pursued growth despite pressure on margins. No major loss was large enough to significantly influence the broader market, but rising attritional claims steadily weakened profitability, increasing the sector’s vulnerability to a catastrophe. Loss ratios were very low at the beginning of 2025, although IUMI expects them to develop as claims mature. Loss activity in 2026 is already running above the comparable period a year earlier.
Cibrario expects energy-sector capital expenditure to increase in 2026, principally because of energy-security concerns. Many offshore facilities have not fully resumed operations following geopolitical disruption. Their redevelopment and renewed investment are expected to bring additional construction, testing and commissioning exposures for insurers. Spending on oil and gas, LNG and new energy infrastructure is also increasing both the value and complexity of insured risks.
Renewables offer another avenue for growth, but profitability remains difficult. They account for 30% of London’s offshore energy premiums. According to the report, about two-thirds of the USD 3.3 trillion invested globally in energy during 2025 went into renewables, with that pattern widely expected to continue in 2026.
IUMI also highlighted inflation-driven repair and business-interruption costs, interconnected infrastructure that increases accumulated exposures, and uncertainty over ownership, policy and subsidies. Cibrario argued that sustainable growth would require better-informed underwriting, careful management of risk concentrations and prudent reinsurance, rather than simply increasing the volume of business written.