Over the summer, I worked as an independent researcher supporting Clean Creatives in building their 2026 F-List. We were a team of 4, each assigned to a particular global region (mine was MENAT), and our task was to look for evidence of contracts between advertising and PR agencies and fossil fuel companies.
Going through so many fossil fuel ads got me thinking about the various mechanisms of normalizing extraction, especially in light of how much money oil companies invest in making sure they look good. Advertising, PR, and lobbying are just some of these mechanisms used.
These levers are not as strong within Brunei and its narrow media landscape, though. And that’s because they don’t really need to be.
This article explores how extraction has become normalized in Brunei and why it obstructs conversations about green transitions, clean energies, and climate action.
It’s easy to study petroculture and the harms of the fossil fuel industry within the ivory tower of academia, among Global North-based scholars and anti-extractivism activists whose lives seem less embedded within, and/or less restricted by, the systems that enable extractivism in the first place.
But it’s different, of course, when speaking to those whose livelihoods directly depend on, and are shaped by, the oil-and-gas industry. When I think about broaching the subject to fellow Bruneians, I more often than not stop myself because I know that speaking about the harms inflicted by the oil-and-gas industry can be:
- Akin to blasphemy, which says a lot about how strong the national narrative is that binds modern Bruneian identity to oil.
- Judged as being naive or idealistic, rather than realistic.
(I acknowledge that there are generational differences in the reactions I get with the youth being most open to discussion. After all, it’s their futures that are hanging in the balance.)
These reactions aren’t surprising. The global fossil fuel industry has spent trillions of dollars over the past several decades purchasing social license so that they can continue to profit from extraction without much local protest. They don’t just fund scholarships, invest in local companies, health facilities, infrastructure, provide jobs–they LOUDLY proclaim that they do these things. Over time, they form people’s beliefs that:
- We will forever need and be indebted to oil and gas because,
- Modern civilization (and Modern Brunei) was only possible because of oil wealth and to transition away from that would destabilize our current standards of living.
How does the mechanics of normalizing extraction look like within the context of Brunei? The list below is by no means exhaustive, but they work together rather efficiently in normalizing extracting local natural resources for profit to accumulate elsewhere.
- Education
We’ve inherited the British education system that separates the arts and the sciences. Students who do well academically are sorted into the “science stream” which predictably focuses on Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and IT. This creates a robust talent pipeline (excuse the pun) for the oil and gas industry, and at the same time, the well-paid jobs that the industry offers attracts students to these subjects–often with the encouragement of family and wider society. Those who don’t do so well go into the “arts stream”, which, over time, has led to the devaluing of the arts–and the people who engage in them–as a whole.
Career fairs held at schools often highlight “bright” futures in the oil-and-gas industries. These are powerful at painting a rosy picture of an innovative, ambitious, well-compensated career in the industry. These companies often have more funding and staff to set up fancy booths and gift souvenirs for students who engage with them. This works effectively to shape early ideas about careers in the industry.
2. Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives
From beach clean-ups, tree-planting activities, art shows, and eco-festivals to hackathons, pitch competitions, and start-up support among others. Oil and gas companies are often the go-to for when educational institutions, NGOs and independent organizations need funds to hold events. Over time, this helps establish social license for these multinational fossil fuel companies–so much so that their presence and extractive activities aren’t scrutinized or questioned.
This ties in with the belief that Modern Brunei was only possible because of oil wealth. These oil-funded programs and initiatives serve to remind the public of oil’s central role in the nation’s history.
I’ve written previously of petro-citizenship, how the ties between oil and national identity are formulated and maintained.
3. Economic design
We’ve locked ourselves into an oil-dominant economy by not having made enough effort nor action on economic diversification despite the calls to do so many decades ago. There also doesn’t seem to be much incentive (despite the obvious ones of climate change) to do so.
Scholars much more knowledgeable than I on this matter have written quite a lot on this topic and I recommend perusing these studies. (It’s highly telling that the abstract emphasizes these studies do not provide solutions to the diversification problem).
4. Urban design & mobility infrastructure
I’ve brought the Bruneian car culture up before in ‘The Making of a Petro-Citizen‘–how the lack of a functional public transportation system and easy car loans have led to our reliance on cars and petrol, which is itself subsidized. Beyond the practicalities of needing fuel for cars, the petro-aesthetics, the social status afforded to owning certain cars, of gaining access to certain spaces if you have certain license plates, also entwines social identity to oil.
Besides that, urban and community spaces were never designed with pedestrians nor public transport users in mind (with the exception of the main hospital, RIPASH, and the main private hospital, JPMC, both of which have their own buses connected to dedicated parking lots to serve a large amount of patients). Commercial spaces, schools, government buildings, offices, recreational centers, are all designed with large parking lots and barely any shaded areas under which to walk.
Roads themselves are only for cars and trucks. There are no bicycle lanes, no EV lanes, no dedicated bus lanes, nor even carpool lanes. For those of you who are based in Brunei, you might remember the furore last year about having dedicated bike lanes for the growing number of athletic cyclists. They are now banned from the major roads under the guise of their protection, which distracts from the fact that dedicated bicycle lanes could just be designed.
Caveat: The minister for transport and infocommunications did mention in this year’s LegCo that in the long-term, dedicated bike lanes would be integrated, but I somehow have the feeling that this would go the way of EVs.
5. Oil-and-gas infrastructure
Petrol stations are ubiquitous, again serving and easing car owners and drivers, which contributes to the normalization of fossil fuels. I’ve also pointed out previously the role that petroaesthetics play in normalizing such infrastructure through playgrounds in the shape of rigs, and exhibitions that delineate the process of extraction in a palatable way.
Much of the infrastructure of extraction, processing, and production, however, are neatly squared away in the little oil town of Seria–an hour’s drive away from the bustling administrative and finance capital of Bandar Seri Begawan. Rigs are mostly offshore and therefore out-of-sight. Nothing much attracts people to Seria except for work and when they do, they’re ensconced in plush offices. For the workers who do work in the plants and directly with the machinery and infrastructure itself, they wear distinct coveralls and safety gear that become reflected in adverts and posters that depict them as heroes and leaders of the future.
6. Language & imaginary
This brings me to my next and last (but by no means final) point. Narratives, stories, and imaginaries play such an important role in normalizing extraction. This is certainly not unique to Brunei, in fact a lot of what’s circulating in Brunei reflects what’s circulating elsewhere. I highly recommend this article on how fossil fuel companies in Colombia and Nigeria justify extraction because a lot of the strategies they point out can be identified in Brunei as well.
When we even attempt to discuss transitioning away from fossil fuels, the immediate response is likely either to do with energy security or economic chaos. This is not to say that those things aren’t realistic, because they certainly are, but they sidestep any productive discussion about possible solutions to these challenges. These narratives are touted all the time by the government, which gets published in the media, and trickled down to all social media platforms. And when economic diversification “wins” are all related to the expansion of downstream oil-and-gas and AI, we know we’ve absolutely locked ourselves and future generations into fossil fuel extraction.
My apologies for ending on such a negative note and I’ve made a promise to myself at the beginning of this year to be more solutions-oriented in an effort to help advance climate action.
What is the solution? For starters, read more, reflect more, and speak.
Because in Brunei, we’ve also normalized silence. You can see it on Threads, whenever there are people from Malaysia or Singapore or Indonesia who call on Bruneians, asking where we are, you’ll see a lot of responses saying, “we’re minding our own business”, “we’re peaceful and content on our own”, “we’re introverts happy to just listen in to your conversation.” But that same silence and contentment can be confused with complacency. That peace of mind only comes with a lack of critical thought and willful or enforced ignorance. Because what belies that silence and claims of contentment is the growing youth unemployment crisis, mental health issues, burnout, crimes of all kinds, climate chaos, to name a few.
What can speaking out achieve? When we bring these issues to the fore, we allow for connections to be made between them, which leads to actual solutions to the roots of the problems. We allow for conversation to be had, for ideas to develop and, more importantly, implemented. We allow for various voices to be heard, for necessary collaboration to occur. We start building communities again around shared purposes.
When we begin to speak, when different voices are heard, we disrupt assumptions and normalized beliefs. We create new imaginaries, and with those imaginaries come just futures. So speak.
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