Environmental issues growing factor for US shale investors

摘要

ENVIRONMENTAL, social and governance (ESG) issues are becoming increasingly important to investors in the US shale patch, a sector which has lagged behind European majors in addressing problems such as social licence to operate and climate change. "The ESG issue is important and I think that it's easier for investors to ignore the space and point to ESG when returns are hard to come by," Kyle Kafka, partner at private equity firm EnCap said last week at the Private Capital Conference in Houston. "I think that to the extent the industry is generating attractive returns, as long as you are being good stewards of the environ-ment, that will win the day [in gaining] investor dollars."