Shell announces retreat from Arctic drilling
Royal Dutch Shell has announced its plans to cease drilling off Alaska “for the foreseeable future”, partly because of high costs of exploration, and “the challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska”. Marvin Odum, director of Shell Upstream Americas added, “Shell continues to see important exploration potential in the basin, and the area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the US. However, this is a clearly disappointing exploration outcome for this part of the basin.”