International oil companies, petrocultures and the transatlantic divide: A review of engagement with the energy transition and the future of oil and gas

This review article examines divergent approaches by International Oil Companies (IOCs) to the energy transition away from fossil fuels. While these companies are subjected to similar pressures across comparable markets and operations, European IOCs have been adopting a more “progressive” approach to the transition by doing more to diversify into renewables: they have been moving into “electrons”. By contrast, American IOCs have made a more “conservative” bet on the resilience of global oil and natural gas demand: they have been staying with “molecules”. Based on this counterintuitive development, or “puzzle”, this review surveys existing literature on the IOCs in the energy transition with the aim to, 1) examining the evidence on divergence and existing explanations thereof, and 2) offer the concept of a distinct American “petroculture” as a useful analytical lens for understanding divergence among IOCs. Combining the insights of the petrocultures approach with conventional political economy accounts of the agency of IOCs provides a novel and multidisciplinary account of corporate agency in research on energy transitions. Reflecting on the nature and explanations for divergence between American and European IOCs will also indicate how these multinational companies may fare in the energy transition – which ones may prosper and which ones may decline – and whether we ought to expect divergence or convergence in their strategies over time.