Wall Street Journal on Abrams Environmental Clinic's Shell Report

Shell Faces Pressure to Disclose Priorities

Shell executives have said the BG merger wouldn’t affect plans to spend $1 billion drilling in the Arctic this summer, a project that has been criticized by environmentalists.

Shell’s Arctic plans have been of concern to investors since its 2012 drilling program there failed. After paying more than $2 billion to the federal government to obtain Arctic licenses, Shell had to stop drilling early because of sea ice. Its rig was wrecked and the U.S. government imposed fines for Clean Air Act violations. All told, the company has spent about $5 billion on the Arctic. Oppenheimer analyst Fadel Gheit said that despite the problems, the spending is worth it because of the Arctic’s potentially big oil reserves.

But in a bid to pressure Shell to drop the plan, environmental group Oceana and an environmental law clinic at University of Chicago Law School sent a report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday claiming that the company is understating the risks of its work in the Arctic.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal