diff --git a/scrapy/shell.py b/scrapy/shell.py
index 4d75e8072..7fcc9275f 100644
--- a/scrapy/shell.py
+++ b/scrapy/shell.py
@@ -38,8 +38,6 @@ def parse_url(url):
 
 class Shell(object):
 
-    requires_project = False
-
     def __init__(self, update_vars=None, nofetch=False):
         self.vars = {}
         self.update_vars = update_vars