The green flings: Norwegian oil and gas industry’s engagement in offshore wind power

Tuukka Mäkitie, Håkon E. Normann, Taran M. Thune and Jakoba Sraml Gonzalez

Energy Policy, 2019, vol. 127, issue C, 269-279

Abstract: Reorientation of fossil fuel industries towards renewable energy, and the role of changes in organizational environment underlying such processes, have not featured strongly in the study of sustainable energy transitions. We contribute to this important policy issue with a case study of the Norwegian oil and gas industry and its engagement in offshore wind power. We study how the engagement has changed during the period 2007–2016, and whether these changes correspond with developments in the industry’s task and institutional environments. Our study reveals that despite relatively stable institutional environment and continuous growth in offshore wind market over the last decade, the oil and gas industry’s engagement has fluctuated over time. These fluctuations – green flings – took place during two market downturns in the oil and gas market, while during an oil and gas boom the industry reoriented back to this core market. Our results draw attention to the potential importance of market changes for reorientation of fossil fuel industries towards renewable energy. We conclude by discussing the implications of our study for policies seeking to support sustainable energy transitions.

Keywords: Sustainable energy transition; Organizational environment; Oil and gas industry; Offshore wind power; Norway (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518308115
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:127:y:2019:i:c:p:269-279

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.015

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().