A collection of investors are planning to take Shell to task at its annual general meeting in May over its investment in the Canadian tar sands.
According to Guardian reports, more than 100 investors, both institutional and individual, will quiz the oil giant about the long-term viability of the company's investments in tar sands in northern Alberta given the regulatory, reputational and environmental risks associated with the carbon-intensive projects.
The development from Alberta's tar sands has drawn repeated criticism from environmental activist groups, which have argued the high levels of energy required to extract oil from the region's sandy deposits make it one of the most carbon-intensive means of fuel production.
The production process also requires large volumes of water, and has led to widespread pollution in the area, according to protesters.
This is not the first time that investors have challenged the wisdom of oil and gas firms' investments in the tar sands.
Cooperative Financial Services (CFS) collaborated with WWF-UK last April to call for new legislation that would force oil and gas companies to disclose their future carbon liabilities.
Executives at the time called the tar sands developments "toxic financially and environmentally, especially with the emergence of low carbon fuels standards in Europe and California."
Since then, a federal cap-and-trade deal has made its way at least partly through the US Congress, and the EPA has officially ruled that greenhouse gases are dangerous to human health and need regulating, further fuelling investor fears that the introduction of carbon pricing mechanisms will undermine the economic viability of tar sands projects, which are likely to take decades to deliver a return on investment, even without measures to tackle carbon emissions.
Nearly $40bn (£24.3bn) of UK pension assets is invested in UK-based oil and gas companies, according to CFS.
Shell downplayed the coming shareholder action, which will force its chief executive, Peter Vosser, to defend the company's oil sands investments at the AGM.
"The resolution is basically a request for further information around the economics and other aspects of our oil sands operations," the company told the Guardian. "The resolution is submitted by shareholders representing some 0.15 per cent of our total outstanding shares."
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