As of Monday, September 28, the Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company ended their exploration for offshore oil in the Arctic after over $7 billion.
The results Shell got were not too promising as drilling more would only add to the costs and they would not have made enough money on this exploration which is one of the main reasons why they ended their venture in the Arctic.
Web. 3 Oct. 2015. <http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/560a967f69bedd443151a9f5/shell-is-giving-up-on-its-arctic-drilling-plan-after-spending-7-billion.jpg>.
Shell is not the first company that went in search of oil to the Arctic. Their reasons to start the exploration were justified as the Arctic is one of the very few places left on the planet which has been left untapped. They were not doing too bad as they had reached a depth of nearly 2075 metres with the exploratory well drilling in about in about 45 metres of water.
One of the other main reasons why Shell might have ended their exploration was also because of the opposition they faced from the local authorities and environmentalists. Many issues had already been raised against them saying that they can cause an oil spill and disturb the flora and fauna of the region and also leave an adverse impact on the wildlife of the region. This issue was also brought to President Obama’s attention.
Web. 3 Oct. 2015. <http://www.climatechangenews.com/files/2014/08/Shell.jpg>.
Their share prices have been going down for months and ending the exploration has only made things worse for Shell which can be seen in the graph below showing their share prices from the past few months.
Web. 3 Oct. 2015. <http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=staticchart&s=NY^RDS.B&p=5&t=41>.
References:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/shell-stops-arctic-drilling-development-1.3246355
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/28/shell-ceases-alaska-arctic-drilling-exploratory-well-oil-gas-disappoints
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/09/28/shell_in_the_arctic_shell_abandons_arctic_drilling_citing_regulatory_and.html