Terry Macalister
Monday July 23, 2007
Shell has been forced to halt plans to start drilling in the Arctic by a court challenge from indigenous Alaskans and green groups who claim that polar bears and whales would be put at serious risk.
The ban by the US court of appeal pending a hearing on the issue came as Shell and its new partner Gazprom came under renewed attack for its activities off Sakhalin Island in Russia with a panel of experts from the World Conservation Union urging the operators to do more to protect the western grey whales that feed in the area.