The End of Petroleum and the Global South - Ethnographies of Oil Extraction and Policy Futures in a Decarbonising World | S-OIL | Proyecto | Ficha informativa | HORIZON | CORDIS

Descripción del proyecto

Las petroleras nacionales en un mundo de descarbonización urgente

La urgencia de la transición ecológica ha repercutido en los Estados, los mercados y las sociedades de todo el mundo, lo que ha dado lugar a nuevas dinámicas sociales, económicas y políticas al tiempo que refuerza otras. El equipo del proyecto S-OIL, financiado por el CEI, explora el papel, la naturaleza y la huella de desarrollo de las compañías petroleras nacionales (CPN) en un mundo que exige una rápida descarbonización de la economía mundial. En el proyecto se estudiará la importancia de las CPN en Asia, África y América Latina. Se evaluarán su respuestas a la transición energética, sus repercusiones en el desarrollo y la sociedad y, en última instancia, se deducirán métodos y estrategias mediante los cuales las CPN puedan transformarse y contribuir en estos tiempos cruciales. En el proyecto se cartografiarán y caracterizarán las CPN, se analizarán experiencias transformadoras clave y se investigarán los casos en los que la titularidad pública resulte decisiva para las vías de transición energética.

Objetivo

S-OIL is a transregional investigation into the nature, roles and developmental footprints of national oil companies (NOCs) facing the urgency of decarbonisation and the challenges of the global energy transition. Its significance and timeliness have been highlighted by growing academic and policy debates around the resurgence of the state, changing world geopolitics and the phasing out of fossil fuels.
State-owned oil companies will make or break the energy transition. To date, however, there have been no systematic research efforts nor attempts to theoretically engage with the restructuring of NOCs and its broader social, economic, political and environmental implications. Other studies have refocused the research agenda on the ‘greening’ of the oil industry; still, most of the recently published scientific literature has been framed by the specific conditions of a few countries and companies. My project, instead, will focus on the concrete significance and challenges of NOCs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The overall goal is to critically assess the nature, roles and impacts of NOCs, charting a likely evolution and examining these companies’ opportunities, limitations and challenges while exploring alternatives to market-driven economics and politics in oil-producing countries. The research will be structured around three intertwined objectives:
1. To appraise national oil companies' shifting nature and significance in the Global South.
2. To assess the societal and developmental footprint of national oil companies.
3. Critically evaluate whether and how national oil companies can be transformed in the face of climate change and the urgent need to decarbonise the energy sector.
The work plan has been structured around an exhaustive mapping and characterisation of NOCs, an in-depth analysis of transformative experiences, processes and trends in three world regions, and ethnographic research on transformative cases of public ownership in the oil industry.