Reconceptualising energy security : business perspectives on energy security in the Norwegian and Russian Arctic

Abstract

Despite the global importance of energy security as a concept that shapes national and international energy policymaking, it lacks clarity and is open to interpretation (Alhajji 2008, Azzuni & Breyer, 2017). Conventional supply-focused approaches to energy security have been criticised for failing to account for a multitude of actors and challenges faced by the energy industry and energy consumers globally. A growing number of authors have reflected on the need for a more comprehensive approach to energy security that incorporates risks across the whole energy system (rather than focusing on supply only) and a multitude of adjacent dimensions (see Hippel et al 2009, Vivoda 2010, Elkind 2010, Mitchell and Watson 2013, Cherp & Jewell 2014). However, this literature still approaches energy security from a state perspective ignoring the role of non-state actors. This thesis seeks to bridge this gap by exploring risk perceptions of energy companies – arguably the key actors of energy systems – involved in energy operations in one of the harshest and riskiest petroleum provinces in the world, the Arctic. Building on the recent research and using the results of semi-structured interviews with corporate elite personnel across two case studies (Norway and Russia), this research interrogates business framings of energy security across four dimensions (environment, technologies, socio-cultural factors and governance) with a focus on how they impact three energy security objectives (availability, accessibility and reliability). It analyses companies’ values and tools of securitisation and argues that energy companies’ understanding of vulnerability as a combination of risks’ urgency and companies’ agency or control determines their focus on the accessibility and reliability objectives of energy security. By introducing a temporal dimension to energy security (changes in risk perceptions over a project lifecycle and depending on energy systems’ maturity), the thesis argues that it is a dynamic concept and concludes with making the case for context-specific and problem- focused polycentric energy security governance aimed at developing adaptive capacity for actors involved in the functioning of energy systems.