Purpose. The main purpose of the study is to analyze the long-period variability of the circulation characteristics of coastal waters in the Black Sea when assessing their energy contribution based on the long-term contact monitoring data on coastal currents.

Methods and Results. The variability of kinetic energy of long-term oscillations of the coastal current off the Southern Coast of Crimea is analyzed based on the materials for 2002–2023 of the oceanographic database of Marine Hydrophysical Institute, RAS. The features of structure of the coastal water long-period oscillations are studied using the methods of statistical and spectral analysis of the energy variability of along-coastal current circulation in the 5–20 m layer over a 22-year measurement period. Within the intra-annual range of current variability, the energy contribution of seasonal oscillations is statistically reliably systematized for the periods 1.0, 0.5, 0.33 and ∼ 0.2 years. The results of analyzing the vector-averaged data made it possible to identify the spectral composition both of long-term current oscillations for the periods ∼ 2.7, 3.6, 5.3, 7.1 years and 11-year oscillations within the 22-year variability cycle. The spectral composition of coastal current inter-annual oscillations was compared to the North Atlantic Oscillation index. During the period of solar activity intensification in 2007–2020, a 1.5-fold increase in the values of velocity modulus of the coastal current inter-annual oscillations was noted.

Conclusions. The long-period oscillations of coastal current including a range of short-term climatic oscillations were identified and systematized based on the results of analyzing the long-term field data obtained off the Black Sea coast. The prospects for further investigating the relations between such current oscillations and long-term circulation processes in the atmosphere of the Black Sea region are shown.