Energy Business Recap: Shell’s Pullback From Alaska, Chevron and Transocean’s Brazil Ban

Some interested parties are calling Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDS.A)( RDS.B) decision to postpone its plans to search for oil in Alaska’s Arctic offshore until 2013, “disappointing news” since the drilling campaign was considered a “major potential catalyst for the stock this year.” Environmental groups are cheering, but Shell’s decision actually reinforces its credibility; an energy fund manager comments that “Shell wants to get it right… up there, you don’t get a second chance.”

Investing Insights: Gold and Silver Climb Higher, Despite Stronger U.S. Dollar.

An injunction that bans Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) and Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) from operating in Brazil has been appealed by the country’s petroleum regulator on the grounds that the ban would negatively impact oil exploration there. For one thing, the ban would disallow state-run Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) from drilling eight new wells in its huge Marlim field located northeast of Rio de Janeiro.

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