Constructing Arctic Energy Resources: The Case of the Canadian North, 1921–1980

This chapter explores how the future of Arctic hydrocarbons was narrated and imagined, and the real effects stories have had on the rocks, inhabitants, hydrocarbon reservoirs and ecologies of the north. It takes the case of the Canadian Arctic as a prospective zone of hydrocarbon exploitation since the 1940s, and especially in the peak era of exploration in the late 1960s and 1970s. Arctic hydrocarbons were presented as a treasure house for Canada, for export income, national economic development and security. Yet, very little has been extracted. It examines how resources were mobilized by presenting futures in the form of estimates of gas and oil reserves, infrastructure, demand and prices, and geopolitics; and related forms of the sociability among actors such as firms and government.