Safety and Vulnerability in Arctic Oil and Gas Exploitation in Norway: How do various stakeholders interpret risks and readiness?

• Main Author: Chuefor, Collins Mbeka
• Other Authors: Staupe-Delgado, Reidar
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Stavanger, Norway 2019
• Subjects: High North; Arctic; oil and gas; olje og gass; environmentalists; emergency preparedness; oil spill; drilling; vulnerability; boring; Arktis; energi; miljø og samfunn; VDP::Social science: 200; VDP::Technology: 500::Environmental engineering: 610; Norwegian Sea; Lofoten; Norway; Todd; Gass; Arktis*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2621786

Master's thesis in Energy, environment and safety Norway’s petroleum history is comparatively short, notwithstanding it has suddenly stamped its authority as a petroleum nation using its energy geopolitical influence to make its voice heard in Europe and beyond. Few accidents in the early stage of its journey to becoming an oil-dependent nation forced important legislative instruments to regulate the oil industry. The rising cost of operation in the North Sea due to aging oil fields and the discovery of large deposits in the High North accelerated the award of licenses to for operation in the Barents and the Lofoten areas ( including the Norwegian Sea) a move considered by environmentalist as unconstitutional and a step away from the commitments made under the Paris Agreement to reduce CO2. While Taleb’s Black Swan Theory serves as a useful tool to policy makers and managers of the danger of hindsight bias in decision making, Perrow’s Normal Accident Theory and Todd Laporte’s High Reliability Theory constitute useful analytical frameworks to understand the possibility and impossibility of safety. However, findings through interviews from experts on the narratives of safety, vulnerability and preparedness in the High North after analyses reveal four conceptual frameworks namely: - Too risky to drill in the Arctic - Risk acknowledgement in Arctic drilling but necessary hence, good preparedness plans in place. - Sceptic outlook on safe Arctic drilling - Optimistic outlook on safe drilling in the Arctic These conceptual frameworks lead to the understanding that the polarised atmosphere is Norway’s Arctic oil and gas exploitation is a product of mistrust and normative interpretations based on vested interest amongst stakeholders. The degree of Norway’s readiness to drill in the Arctic is shaped by the conception of the stakeholders’ ‘truth’ and the provenance of their ‘truths’ hinges on their overall objectives leaving one with a paradox of safety and Arctic oil money. The quest for Arctic oil has stirred debates ...