Santa Claus Could Be Sitting on Billions of Barrels of Oil

This segment is from Thursday's edition of 'Digging for Value', in which sector analysts Joel South and Taylor Muckerman discuss energy & materials news with host Alison Southwick. The twice-weekly show can be viewed on Tuesdays & Thursdays. It can also be found on Twitter, along with our extended coverage of the energy & materials sectors @TMFEnergy.

Source: Wikipedia

As colossal, integrated oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell begin to run out of options to meaningfully increase their reserve bases through conventional means, new, more controversial regions must be explored. For several years now, Shell had hoped that the Alaskan Arctic would their ticket to growth that shareholders would appreciate. Unfortunately, it hasn't been able to get its act together, and over $4 billion has been spent on wasted efforts.

For peers like ExxonMobil and Statoil , the Arctic Circle is the future, but they are both reaching outside of the United States. Hopefully, for their sake, the Kara and Barents Sea will be more friendly that the Chukchi has been to Shell. For more on these companies' plans, check out the short video below.

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The article Santa Claus Could Be Sitting on Billions of Barrels of Oil originally appeared on Fool.com.

Joel South has no position in any stocks mentioned. Taylor Muckerman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Statoil (ADR). Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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