Upgrading the ‘Petropolis’ of the North? Resource peripheries, global production networks, and local access to the Snøhvit natural gas complex

Abstract

Steen, M. & Underthun, A. 2011. Upgrading the ‘Petropolis’ of the North? Resource peripheries, global production networks and local access to the Snøhvit natural gas complex. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 65, 212–225. ISSN 0029-1951. The article explores and assesses local and regional firms’ access to a natural gas extraction and refining complex located at the northern frontier of the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Controversial in environmental terms, the complex has been largely legitimized by the promise of regional economic development in North Norway, where opportunities for a localized support industry would have to be interpreted as constitutive of such a promise. The article employs a Global Production Network theoretical approach, and the authors pay particular attention to the complex interaction and power struggle between local, national, and global firms and institutions.