The California State Teachers Retirement System indicates it believes there is support for its call to have Continental Resources, Inc. to start issuing reports on how it monitors and manages methane emissions from its oil and gas operations. The system filed a shareholder resolution this week, asking for the disclosure to be made by the Oklahoma City based company.
CALSTRS is a major investor in Continental Resources and as of April 5, had 214.512 shares with a market value of $6,325,958.
“We do believe there is support for this proposal,” said Michelle Mussuto, Information Officer for CALSTRS who replied by email to a request from OK Energy Today. “Many companies have already done what we are asking in this proposal, so Continental is an outlier we believe in their disclosure about methane emissions.”
In its request for the resolution, CALSTRS referred to the SoCalGas leak in California that resulted in thousands evaucated from their homes for months.
“This is not about the So-Cal gas leak but the leak does bring attention to the importance of methane emissions controls and risk management,” added Mussuto. “We have been engaging companies about methane for a few years.”
A request for a response from Continental Resources was not answered.
But in its filing, CALSTRS pointed out how Continental Resources did not have the best of environmental reputations in its oil and gas explorations. It said there were 958 environmental incidents involving 1.5 million gallons of spilled fluids from 2006 through late 2014 in North Dakota and that the company had been subject to numerous lawsuits.
