People and Petroleum : Practice and Potential of Reconciliation in Petroleum Governance

Abstract

This thesis discusses the use of reconciliation in natural resource management, focusing on petroleum governance. The main objective is to investigate if reconciliation is relevant in petroleum governance. Through an exploratory desk study design, this study show that petroleum conflicts, when framed through intractable conflict theory, actually are conducive for reconciliation even when resources and interest seem to be the most obvious conflict issues. Additionally, the study probes this link through the current practices of petroleum governance in three carefully selected peaceful petroleum-rich cases. Deploying a broad concept of social psychological reconciliation theory on the petroleum governance functions indicate that there are ways in which reconciliation is practiced through petroleum governance. The final stage of this exploratory research is discussing the conflict prevention potential of these practices. Recent statistical research indicates that current countermeasures are failing, and that there is a need for more comprehensive means of curbing conflicts and violence in petroleum-rich countries. This study suggests that there are plausible ways in which reconciliation can make intractable conflicts tractable, and thus prevent conflict. However, when identity frames are addressed, and institutions that sustain tractability are established, new conflicts may emerge. As such, engaging in reconciliation through petroleum governance can also stimulate new conflicts.