There is an increasing tendency to consider social and commercial issues at the circumpolar level, including creating contact networks, exchanging experience and enhancing the role of business in circumpolar regional cooperation. This brief article speaks to this growing trend in Arctic business cooperation by bringing to light both commonality and variation in society-business relations in the Russian Arctic. Drawing upon 56 in-depth qualitative interviews, we examine and compare how petroleum-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) was understood in Murmansk Oblast' (with its shelved Shtokman project) and Nenets Autonomous Okrug (with its decades-long experience with petroleum projects).