Post-Petroleum Security in a Changing Arctic: Narratives and Trajectories Towards Viable Futures

• Author: Brigt Dale, Berit Kristoffersen
• Pages: 9-26

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Citation: Brigt Dale & Berit Kristoffersen. “Post-Petroleum Security in a Changing Arctic: Narratives and Trajectories

Towards Viable Futures’’ Arctic Review on Law and Politics, Vol. 9, 2018, pp. 244–261. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/arctic.

v9.1251

*Correspondence to: Brigt Dale, email: bda@nforsk.no

Arctic Review on Law and Politics

Vol. 9, 2018, pp. 244–261

244

Peer-reviewed article

Post-Petroleum Security in a Changing

Arctic: Narratives and Trajectories

Towards Viable Futures

Brigt Dale

Nordland Research Institute

Berit Kristoffersen

UiT Arctic University of Norway

Abstract

In this paper we explore how post-petroleum security is continually shaped by both the micropo-

litical practices of everyday life as well as the changing geopolitics of energy landscapes. We focus

in particular on the two-decade long struggle over access to hydrocarbon deposits outside the

Lofoten, Vesterålen and Senja archipelago groups (LoVeSe), and show how local security perspec-

tives permeate both national and international debates concerning the future of oil and the global

climate challenge. These developments, we argue, are taking place in a paradoxical conjunction

with Norwegian political establishment who along with the oil and gas industry insist on continued

petroleum dependency as the only viable future. We further investigate how particular controlling

measures have determined past, present and future narratives, and assess how alternative ideas

that include multiple possible trajectories have found their way into national and global debates

despite these efforts. The argument permeating this paper states that while oil remains a security

concern to both proponents and opponents to oil development in the Arctic, the extent to which

this situation is seen as a threat or a security provider varies greatly.

Keywords: post-petroleum; ontological security; Norway; Lofoten; Arctic; disruption;

transformation; green transition

Responsible Editor: Margherita Paola Poto, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway,

Tromsø, Norway.

Received: May 2018; Accepted: September 2018; Published: October 2018

Post-Petroleum Security in a Changing Arctic

245

1. Introduction: Doing oil

In 2009, Norway celebrated 40 years of oil and gas extraction. A commemorative

anthology comprised of ction, myths and reminiscences written by historians, jour-

nalists, celebrities and novelists re-established a fairytale narrative that has followed

the industry since its inception. The title itself, We found it, we found it,1 paraphrases

one of Norwegian folklore’s most famous and popular characters, Askeladden – the

story of a hapless young man who through his curiosity and tenacity gains fame and

fortune by charming the princess and tricking the king into letting him mar ry her.2

The allusion to this fairytale gure suggests that the story of the Norwegian oil and

gas industry and to Norwegians by extension embodies the same qualities as those

presented in the fairytale. That Norwegians conquer nature and the treasures under

the seabed is seen as something typically Norwegian. Likewise, in a 2005 television

documentary celebrating Norway’s hundred years of independence from Sweden,

four decades of oil extraction (to that date) is presented as something emanating

from specic Norwegian qualities:

“… (the ocean) has taught the Norwegian (Nordmannen) that no life exists without

hardship, no happiness without suffering.”3

Extend the Askeladden metaphor with perseverance and a sense of being a provin-

cial outpost in modern Europe, and the backdrop for the Norwegian fairytale is

set. Finding black gold is the ultimate triumph. The celebrator y texts of the 2009

anniversary anthology was preluded with an introduction by then Prime Minister

Jens Stoltenberg. He focused on employment and revenues generated from the oil

industry and the specic global responsibility of Norway as a provider of energy to

the world:

Through being a stable and predictable provider of oil and gas to international markets,

we contribute to energy security both regionally and globally. (…) We cannot choose

between energy or (the) climate, we must choose both. (…) The technological basis for

the Norwegian petroleum industry gives us the opportunity to contribute to solving the

challenges of a warming climate. The discharge of greenhouse gases from the [production

at the] Norwegian shelf is amongst the lowest in the world. Technology developed at the

Norwegian shelf contributes to a lower release of climate gases [from production, our

insertion] than in other countries.4

Three years later, Stoltenberg stated that he had no idea what Norway would do

‘after oil’, as it would seemingly last another “…fty to a hundred years…”, and

that those who were talking about a time after oil were “… well paid to present

rubbish…”.5 At the time, the Prime Minister promoted research and science as a

way forward to enable enhanced extraction techniques. The outsider Askeladden

had become King, and the King had no intention of risking his kingdom to mere

speculation. The mythical past (nding oil) was thus coupled to a particular techno-

scientic rationale of practicing extractivism. This narrative supported the rationale