Toby Green Wednesday 20 June 2012
Environmentalists may want to look away now. Royal Dutch Shell’s search for oil in the Arctic has not been short of controversy, coming under attack from, among others, Xena: Warrior Princess actor Lucy Lawless, who earlier in the year boarded one of the energy giant’s ships in protest against the drilling.
Yet yesterday came a reminder why Shell is pushing on with its quest — money, and rather a lot of it. Ten billion dollars (£6.4bn) in fact, according to the calculations of Nomura’s analysts, who think that is how much Shell could net from the region.
“Success in Alaska would be material to the share price, even for a company the size of Shell,” they claimed, adding it could put it “at the forefront of Arctic exploration”. As a result the scribblers kept their buy advice and 2,700p target price as Shell was lifted 32p to 2,225p.
