ShareAction, together with Platform and Greenpeace, has published a new report: 'Russian Roulette: International oil company risk in the Russian Arctic'

This report:

• provides an overview of the Arctic exploration deals that have been made between an international oil company and either Rosneft or Gazprom since 2011;

• examines Rosneft and Gazprom's environmental and safety performance records, along with their experience of offshore drilling at an executive and senior management level;

• provides information on the complex and shifting political landscape in Russia, which will have a direct impact on the future of the Russian oil and gas industry and its western participants; and

• proposes questions that shareholders in IOCs should ask of these companies to clarify how such risks are being mitigated and managed.

Read the full report

The report is accompanied by an investor briefing, available here. The briefing outlines the risks that investors may face and provides them suggested questions to ask Shell.

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ShareAction, together with Platform and Greenpeace, previously published a report on investor risk in Shell's Arctic exploration

Royal Dutch Shell’s plans for Arctic exploration are exposing investors to a ‘spectrum of risks’, a new report warns today.

The report, available here, highlights Shell’s failure to address key concerns for investors and environmentalists: 

• Spill response is inadequate – Shell has not yet tested the well capping system to be used in Arctic conditions – and has stated to a UK parliamentary committee that it has no plans to  do so

• Shell admitted to the same committee that it has not calculated how much a large spill would cost to clean up, despite the serious financial repercussions a large-scale spill is likely to have

• Despite allegations of duress and Russian government intervention in Russian ventures, Shell has revealed no plan to reduce the impact of future intervention.

The analysis also alerts investors that ‘oil spill risks, high extraction costs, doubts over the amount of commercially recoverable reserves, and a precedent of cost overruns and delay combine to raise questions about the commercial viability’ of much of Shell’s planned drilling operations in the Arctic. The Anglo-Dutch oil group is planning to drill five wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas this summer, and is the first major international oil company to make exploitation of the Arctic a key corporate focus.

The report is accompanied by an investor briefing, available here. The briefing outlines the risks that investors may face and provides them suggested questions to ask Shell.