Oil and gas association paid Edelman $327 million over five years

The American Petroleum Institute and the public relations firm Edelman have reportedly terminated their relationship, ending one of the most financially lucrative PR contracts in the association world.

API paid Edelman more than $327 million between 2008 and 2012, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigate journalism organization. At one point the oil association accounted for 10 percent of the agency's global annual revenue.

The two have since gone their separate ways, although the reasons for the split are not entirely clear, according to the PR industry news site The Holmes Report. Much of Edelman's work for API was handled by its subsidiary Blue Advertising, which is divesting from the company and will continue to handle the association's advertising. http://bit.ly/17NsO6q

The British newspaper The Guardian noted Edelman has come under increasing public pressure to cut its ties to the fossil fuel industry. The company announced last year it would no longer represent organizations that deny man-made climate change. http://bit.ly/1zaExCK

API's stance on climate change is complicated. It doesn't deny climate change publicly, but recent documents uncovered by the environmental organization Greenpeace show it helped fund the research of scientist Willie Soon, who argues most of the warming being attributed to greenhouse gas emissions is actually caused by the sun. Soon is being criticized by colleagues for not disclosing his funding sources.http://bit.ly/1w2MnOn