Royal Dutch Shell Plc will stop exploring offshore Alaska, citing high costs and “challenging” regulation, six weeks after it got approval to fully drill a well in the Arctic waters off the U.S. state. Shell forecast it will take related financial charges, according to a company statement on Monday. The balance sheet carrying value of its Alaska position is about $3 billion, with additional future contractual commitments of about $1.1 billion, The Hague, Netherlands-based energy explorer said. Shell is abandoning exploration after winning approval in August to drill the Burger J well in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. Success would have brought the company back to an area it left three years ago after a rig ran aground. That incident helped prompt the Obama administration to revisit U.S. rules for exploration in the region, while environmental groups have long-protested Shell’s plans, saying a spill could cause an ecological disaster. Indications of […]