FYI, this peaceful protest to halt dangerous offshore exploratory
drilling in the Arctic went off in the wee hours of the morning
Greenland time. For more info and updates please go to http://www.gobeyondoil.org/
Richard Charter
31st August 2010, Baffin Bay, Greenland – Campaigners have evaded a huge
military security operation to scale a controversial oil rig in the
freezing seas off Greenland. At dawn this morning four expert climbers
in inflatable speedboats dodged Danish Navy commandos before climbing up
the inside of the rig and hanging from it in tents suspended from ropes,
halting its drilling operation (video and stills available).
The climbers have enough supplies to occupy the hanging tents for
several days. If they succeed in stopping drilling for just a short time
then the operators, Britain’s Cairn Energy, will struggle to meet a
tight deadline to complete the exploration before winter ice conditions
force it to abandon the search for oil off Greenland until next year.
Sim McKenna from the United States, one of the campaigners hanging
fifteen metres above the bitterly cold Arctic ocean, said: “We’ve got to
keep the energy companies out of the Arctic and kick our addiction to
oil, that’s why we’re going to stop this rig from drilling for as long
as we can. The BP Gulf oil disaster showed us it’s time to go beyond
oil. The drilling rig we’re hanging off could spark an Arctic oil rush,
one that would pose a huge threat to the climate and put this fragile
environment at risk.”
McKenna, who had been helping with the Gulf clean-up operation before
joining the Greenpeace ship the Esperanza in the Arctic, continued:
“Right now this platform is the most important oil rig in the world. If
we can stop them striking oil here in the next few weeks we’ll hold back
the oil giants for at least another year, hopefully gaining enough time
for a global ban on dangerous deepwater drilling projects like this to
be enacted.”
A Danish Thetis-class 120m warship, commandos in speed boats and a
flotilla of police boats have been shadowing the Esperanza for the last
nine days. The rig has been forced to stop drilling because any breach
of the 500m security zone around it results in a routine shutdown. It is
currently drilling in volcanic rock, having failed to strike oil, and is
due to move soon to a new drill site 100km away. The campaigners hope
today’s occupation will delay the move or even cause it to be cancelled.
Last week Cairn announced it had struck gas at a site a few miles from
the occupied rig, but not oil. The fragile environment west of Disko
Island is known as Iceberg Alley due to the plentiful icebergs and tough
conditions. This has deterred oil companies from attempting exploration
there in recent years, but the world’s oil giants are watching the Cairn
project with great interest. If the Edinburgh-based company strikes oil,
analysts expect a new Arctic oil rush, with Exxon, Chevron and other
energy giants already buying up licenses to drill in the area and making
preparations to move in.
Jon Burgwald, a Greenpeace campaigner onboard the Esperanza, which is
about a kilometre from the occupied platform, said: “Instead of letting
the oil companies drill for the last drops of oil in pristine places
like the Arctic, our governments should be pushing the development of
the clean energy technologies we need to fight climate change and reduce
our dependence on dirty fuels. We already have the tools we need to go
beyond oil, all that’s missing is the determination to make it happen
quickly. That’s why we have to stop this rig from drilling for as long
as we can. We can’t let the oil giants take us all in the wrong
direction by opening up the Arctic seas to a new oil rush.”
The crew of the Esperanza includes Waldemar Wichmann, the Captain from
Argentina; Annkatrin Schneider, deck hand from Germany; Ben Stewart and
Leila Deen from the UK; Jon Burgwald from Denmark; Victor Rask from
Sweden; Mateusz Emeschajmer from Poland; Timo Puohiniemi from Finland;
Danielle, Second Mate from Australia; Mannas, Chief Engineer from
Holland; and Sim McKenna from the USA.
ENDS
For more information contact Szabina Mozes, Greenpeace International
Communication on +31 646 16 2023
For video and stills contact Melissa Thompson, Greenpeace International
Video Desk: + 31 621 296899; Emma Stoner, Greenpeace International
Picture Desk: +44 (0)207 865 8230+31
To speak to a campaigner off the coast of Greenland contact Ben Stewart,
Leila Dean or Jon Burgwald on the Esperanza on +8816 7770 1411 or +8816
7770 1412 or +8816 7770 1413.
Notes:
* The U.S. government calculates that the chance of a major spill
occurring over the lifetime of a single block of leases in its own
Arctic waters is greater than 20% – while those odds increase with every
extra license granted. If the Cairn operation strikes oil the number of
wells sunk off Greenland would increase dramatically. The well being
drilled by Cairn is at a depth of 300-500 metres, while the moratorium
introduced by President Barack Obama after the Deepwater Horizon
disaster applies to wells deeper than 152 metres. Cairn has refused to
publish a comprehensive plan for how it would deal with a spill from the
platform, and has just 14 vessels capable of reacting to a spill (BP’s
response in the Gulf of Mexico required more than 3000 vessels).
* Drilling west of Greenland is limited to a ‘summer window’
between July and early October. After this date, sea-ice becomes too
thick to allow vessels to operate and relief wells cannot be drilled
effectively. The area which contains the occupied rig is known locally
as ‘iceberg alley’. Cairn is having to tow icebergs out of the rig’s
path or use water cannons to divert them. If the icebergs are too large
the company has pledged to move the rig itself to avoid a collision.
Last month a 260km2 ice island broke off the Petermann glacier north of
Disko island and will eventually make its way south through Nares Strait
into Baffin Bay and the Labrador Current before reaching the area where
drilling is taking place.
* Cairn is run by Sir Bill Gammell, a childhood friend of both
Tony Blair and George W Bush. When Bush first met Blair his opening
words were: “I hear you know my friend Bill Gammell.” Last week Gammell
sold Cairn’s Indian operation for $9.2bn to fund the Greenland project,
describing the Arctic as his “Plan A, B and C.”[i]
* Baffin Bay is home to 80 to 90% of the world’s Narwhals. The
region is also home to blue whales, polar bears, seals, sharks,
cormorants, kittiwakes and numerous other migratory birds.
* Cairn’s Greenland project is representative of a new approach to
modern oil exploration, where self-styled ‘wildcat’ companies take on
huge financial and technical risks in the hope of hitting a previously
undiscovered reservoir of oil. The company’s complete lack of in-house
infrastructure and failure to provide a comprehensive spill response
plan raises serious questions about Cairn’s ability to deal with an
accident in one of the most hostile environments on earth.
* According to Gammell, the company seeks ‘big acreage’ to give it
a wide area for exploration, in contrast to the smaller parcels that are
routinely found in the North Sea for example. The dangers of this
approach become clear in the event of a spill, where the operation’s
remote location means there is little infrastructure already in place to
begin any clean up operation.
Ben Ayliffe | Senior Energy Solutions Campaigner
Greenpeace UK
t: 020 7865 8210
m: 07815 708 683
s: benayliffe
Special thanks to Richard Charter