Hybrid threats in the Norwegian petroleum sector. A new category of risk problems for safety science?

The new geopolitical situation after Russia's invasion of Ukraine has fundamentally changed the role of the Norwegian petroleum industry and many other private businesses. Private companies have become important security actors in the new threat landscape. This article offers an empirical study of how private operator companies in the Norwegian oil and gas sector understand and carry out their role in detecting and handling hybrid threats prior to the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in 2022. By investigating how they understand the phenomena of hybrid threats, and how they understand their role and responsibility in detecting and handling them, this case serves as an example on why societal resilience to hybrid threats only can be achieved through a collaboration between a multiplicity of actors across different scales. Additionally, this article uses the private companies in the Norwegian petroleum sector as an illustrative example on how hybrid threats entail a new category of risk problems where private companies play a pivotal role, and seeks to open up a discussion on whether safety science should include hybrid threats and the new geopolitical situation into its scope. We conclude that safety science should further develop perspectives for developing resilience as a system and societal property and that also take geopolitics into account. At a time when private companies play a more pivotal role in the co-creation of societal resilience against hybrid threats, it is important to investigate and understand this role and how it affects private businesses and their employees' working conditions.