Designing Regulatory Governance Models for Managing Hydrocarbon Resources: Lessons Learned from Norway and the UK

Abstract

While the ever-evolving nature of the global energy industry remains
apparent particularly with a transition away from fossil fuel energy
systems, the role of oil and gas particularly for emerging economies is
undeniable. As new discoveries of oil and gas emerge in countries in
Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, the dominant question will
be how to design robust regulatory governance regimes not just for the
exploration of oil and gas but also for the management of these resources.
As both the United Kingdom and Norway are described as mature oil
and gas jurisdictions by virtue of their profound experience, there are
valuable lessons to be drawn. Despite some remarkable differences in
both the UK and Norwegian regimes, experience suggests that strategy,
foresight, regulatory rigour, and political will are valuable to mitigating
the consequences of the political economy of speed, which suggest the
development of natural resources at the expense of everything else. This
paper provides both a comprehensive and critical appraisal of both the
UK and Norwegian regimes in a way that captures the complexity of
divergent regulatory governance structures.