Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Based on ethnographic research in Norway’s energy sector, this paper explores ‘moral labour’. It asks: How do energy professionals’ conceptualisations of ‘good’ and ‘indispensable’ work (ethically) sustain hydrocarbon infrastructures in energy transition contexts?

Paper long abstract

In 2018, Norway’s then prime minister Erna Solberg asserted the longevity of the country’s hydrocarbon sector by claiming that “the person who will turn off the lights on the Norwegian shelf [the oil sector] has not yet been born” (Gjerde 2018). Norway is one of Europe’s major hydrocarbon producers while internationally recognised as a climate- and energy transition leader. How are these seemingly contradictory positions reconciled ethically?

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork amongst executives, investors, and senior managers in major Norwegian energy companies, this paper examines how oil and gas infrastructures are morally maintained. Engaging energy ethics (Smith & High 2017; High & Smith 2019), I deploy the concept of ‘moral labour’ to capture the ongoing ethical work through which energy professionals conceptualise and communicate hydrocarbon production as responsible, necessary, and compatible with energy transitions.

I argue that moral labour emerges as energy professionals conceptualise technological innovation, national welfare contributions, petrochemical provisioning, and the supply of energy security as ‘good work’. The notion of ‘moral labour’ aims to demonstrates how fossil fuel infrastructures are sustained and legitimised in energy transition contexts, despite overwhelming scientific evidence linking continued fossil fuel production and consumption to escalating climate harm.