International Oil: The Scandinavian Dimension

Abstract

The recurrent energy crises of the past 17 years and the not unrelated rapid development of North Sea oil and gas reserves have had an impact on all the Scandinavian countries, both those with offshore interests and those without. Yet despite calls for Nordic cooperation in this field, such cooperation is virtually nonexistent. It is argued here that this failure is due to the nature of the international oil and gas regime. The analysis is based on four arguments: (1) there is an international oil and gas regime; (2) the dynamics of this regime do not necessarily further intergovernmental cooperation; (3) the current moribund status of Scandinavian cooperation can be ascribed to the nature of this regime; and (4) while the future is uncertain, there is little basis for hope that cooperative institutions can be designed to conform to the diverse expectations of the states involved.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

1. Friedrich Kratochwil and John Gerard Ruggie , “International Organization: A State of the Art on an Art of the State,” International Organization, 40(4):760 (Autumn 1986).

2. Ibid., pp. 764-67.

3. United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations , Alternative Arrangements for Petroleum Development (New York: United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations, 1981).

4. Jerome Davis , “Is There a Relationship? Risk, Cost, and Concessionary/Licensing Terms in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production” (Manuscript, Institute for Economics and Planning, 1989).

For a more Norwegian perspective, see Helge O. Bergesen et al. , Natural Gas in Europe (London: Pinter, 1988).

6. These concerns are reflected in Olav Bjerkholt and Erik Offerdal , eds., Macroeconomic Prospects for a Small Oil Exporting Country (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1985).

and Jerome Davis , High Cost Oil and Gas Resources (London: Croom Helm, 1981), give a good impression as to the nature of licensing and industry-government interrelationships for Norway and Denmark, respectively.

See also B. Berndt Andersson et al. , Naturgasmarknader i Norden (Gothenberg, Sweden: Gothenberg University, Center for Energy Economics, 1989).

9. Kratochwil and Ruggie , “International Organization,” p. 772.