Now, just to refresh your memory, Shell is the oil company whose most notable adventure in 2012 consisted of trying and repeatedly failing to drill for oil off the coast of Alaska this summer. So why did the company win an award, as opposed to the ridicule of its peers? Are extra points awarded for transforming an oil drilling operation into a tragicomic circus show? Or maybe Shell won “Energy Company of the Year” by excelling at lying its ass off; After all, after it spent years and billions of dollars convincing U.S. regulators that drilling was safe, and then turned around and admitted its safety equipment in the Arctic was a joke.
Somebody thought Royal-Dutch Shell did an extra-good job this year, and decided to give them a trophy: The oil giant was named “Energy Company of the Year” at the Platts Global Energy Awards. According to its website, Platts is the “leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information,” and is in no way related to screen legend Oliver Platt.
Now, just to refresh your memory, Shell is the oil company whose most notable adventure in 2012 consisted of trying and repeatedly failing to drill for oil off the coast of Alaska this summer. So why did the company win an award, as opposed to the ridicule of its peers? Are extra points awarded for transforming an oil drilling operation into a tragicomic circus show?