This research programme will expand the understanding of the long-term outlook for three issue clusters of strategic relevance for Norway:
1. Russia and the Caspian region as arenas for foreign energy companies.
2. Driving forces and conditions for Russian and Caspian energy exports.
3. Energy developments in the High North.

These issues will be revisited repeatedly throughout the programme. But to understand and forecast developments in these issues we need to address more fundamental tendencies. In our previous research, we have identified three recurrent energy themes in Russian and Caspian politics:
1. Control of the oil and gas industries and revenue streams.
2. Concern for the energy balance.
3. The link between energy and foreign policy.

These concerns, the way they will be addressed by Russia and the Caspian states, and the factors and driving forces that will influence their relative focus and interpretation, are at the centre of this programme.

The project is organized as a consortium with FNI, NUPI and Econ Pöyry as main partners.

Project period: 2008-2013