Arctic oil spill could be 'catastrophic'

The oil industry has been warned that a spill in the Arctic could be an uncontrollable environmental disaster.

Speaking to the Independent, Professor Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge and former director of Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute, said that the proposed new oil exploration under the ice in the Arctic could be the riskiest ever undertaken.

"If there is serious oil spill under ice in the Arctic it will be very hard, if not impossible to stop it becoming an environmental catastrophe," he said.

"It will be very much harder to deal with than a major spill in open water," Professor Wadhams added.

The move by Shell to go ahead with exploratory oil and gas drilling in the Arctic has also been criticised by a coalition of conservation groups, including the Alaska Wilderness League, the Sierra Club, Oceana and Defenders of Wildlife, among others.