Anglo Dutch oil giant Shell has been given a licence to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic waters off Alaska, despite warnings by protestors it could lead to an environmental disaster.

The licence for up to six exploratory wells was granted by the US government’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management which said it had taken a ‘thoughtful approach to potential exploration’.

‘Any offshore exploratory activities will continue to be subject to rigorous safety standards,’ its director Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement.

Campaign groups say the decision has been rushed through and point out that BOEM’s own environmental impact statement warns ‘there is a 75% chance of one or more large spills’ happening, the Guardian reports.

Shell had to pull out of the Arctic in the middle of 2012 after a key piece of safety equipment that would be used to tackle oil spills broke down.