Blåser Trump nytt liv i romansen mellom ExxonMobil & Rosneft?
Rex Tillerson som utenriksminister kan bety lysere tider for forholdet USA - Russland.
AVLYST: Global styring av energiområde i ei globalisert verd
Eit to år langt norsk-svensk prosjekt er over, og dette seminaret tar ein nærare titt på funna og spesielt områda globalisering og multilaterale institusjonar i global energistyring.
Noreg: Liten stat i den store energipolitikken
EU og Noreg sine interesser kan lett kome på kollisjonskurs på energiområdet.
Promises, promises: The unbuilt petroleum environment in Murmansk
The Arctic as a booming oil and gas province has been a predominant geopolitical representation of the region. However, the shale gas revolution in the United States and the drop in oil prices since late 2014 has reduced the viability of many high-cost Arctic oil and gas prospects. Little scholarly attention has been paid to the consequences of pursued but unrealized natural resource-based projects. This article brings literature from geography and science and technology studies into conversation to map out a preliminary research agenda for understanding how these “shelved futures” are still likely to matter in Arctic communities and policymaking. This conceptual argument is bolstered with a short exploratory case study of Murmansk, Russia. The qualitative-interview based case study illustrates two ways in which the Shtokman gas project retained regional significance, even three years after the project was suspended. Specifically, these are 1) a comparatively negative assessment of the broader socio-economic prospects of the region, and 2) expanded and possibly changed understandings on the part of the different stakeholders (business, government, civil society/the public) about their own and others’ potential roles. The semi-structured interviews with stakeholders primarily focused on recollections of petroleum companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts, as these efforts were a concrete harbinger of the much-trumpeted oil and gas future.
PISM Policy Paper no. 2 (155): Gas Security in the Pipeline — Expectations and Realities
The cooperation between Norway and Poland in the energy sector has recently taken very tangible shape. In 2016, Poland decided to launch the Northern Gate project—a set of gas interconnections aiming to link the Polish gas market with gas deposits on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. With that decision, Poland wants to diversify away from Russia to mitigate energy security and political risks connected with the high level of dependence on one supplier. But in terms of Polish-Norwegian cooperation, the question of security of gas supply that Poland wants to address is accompanied by the question of the security of gas demand, a key concern for gas producers such as Norway. Hence, cooperation in the gas sector examined from those two perspectives may actually bring benefits for both countries and promises of win-win cooperation.
EU gas supply security – the power of the importer
The chapter examines how the European Union can exert its market and regulatory power in its relations with key external energy suppliers. The focus is on the EU instrument toolbox and how various policy instruments have been used in relations with the main suppliers of gas to the Union. Due to the centrality of Russia and Norway to the EU’s gas supply and their different ways of relating to the Union in formal and regulatory terms, the chapter focuses on the impact EU market and regulatory power has had on the operations of these two actors. The chapter also presents some general conclusions on the effectiveness of the EU’s use of various policy instruments in relations with external suppliers of energy.
Renewable Energy and Geopolitics
Dette prosjektet undersøker de geopolitiske konsekvensene av den omfattende overgangen til fornybar energi, både med tanke på utfasing av gamle energikilder og geopoligiske mønstre og systemer, og fre...
Arctic petroleum: Local CSR-perceptions in the Nenets region
The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss perceptions of petroleum-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) among local and regional authorities, local peoples (indigenous and non-indigenous) and representatives of petroleum companies working or living in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO) in the Russian Arctic. Although the CSR literature comprises a broad spectrum of approaches, an underrepresentation of perspectives from non-business stakeholders has been suggested. The paper seeks to redress this gap. The data are obtained through 34 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted and qualitatively analysed to extrapolate perceptions, views and expectations of petroleum-related CSR in NAO. By exploring needs, wants and expectations, differences are identified between short-term expectations and long-term perspectives. A central feature of the authors’ findings is the wide variation in the responses not only between community groups and sectors but also within them. The complexity identified is an argument in favour of local involvement to understand local contexts and suggests avoiding “one-size fits all” CSR approaches. Challenges and opportunities are identified for the petroleum companies in dealing with different stakeholders and diverging interests. The importance of local context means that caution is advised when considering the transferability or generalisability of lessons, within NAO and elsewhere in and outside the Russian Arctic. Furthermore, fundamental motivations are not always transparent from interviews. Although a rich literature exists on CSR, this is perhaps the first study providing a cross-sectoral analysis of people’s perceptions, including those of non-business stakeholders, in this region.