The World Offshore Operations and Maintenance Market Forecast 2012-2016 from Douglas-Westwood is projecting expenditure growth of 8% in the sector from 2012-2016 as the market recovers from the effects of the global downturn in 2008-2009.

In 2011, demand for offshore operations and maintenance services reached $US52.5 billion, having grown a rate of 6.3% over the past five years.

Report author Jenny Harbour said the strong growth forecast for the next five years would be driven by a combination of high oil prices, buoyant offshore development activity and rampant price inflation for equipment and services.

"O&M markers are considerably less vulnerable to downturn than their capital-led counterparts. Whilst global offshore drilling activity dropped by an estimated 14 per cent during 2008-2009, total offshore production grew by 1 per cent," she said.

"The global offshore O&M market dropped over the same period but only by 0.04 per cent despite widespread price deflation for equipment and services."

According to the report, production services would dominate the O&M market expenditure with the maturing of offshore fields driving a 7.4% rise as operators struggle to come to terms with decreasing down hole pressure and increasing water cuts.

Over the 2007-2011 period, demand for production-related services accounted for 44% of global O&M demand.

The report has also forecast the historical dominance of mature western basins in Western Europe and North America would drop over the forecast period by 34% due to a combination of increasing offshore production in regions such as the Middle East and the shift towards deepwater in less mature regions such as Africa and Latin America.