Company executives at Cairn Energy turned up to work this morning to find the entrance of their Edinburgh headquarters blocked by activists and a life-sized polar bear - demanding the company to stop spearheading the new Arctic oil rush.
At the same time as this peaceful direct action in Scotland, the Esperanza is monitoring the company’s 53,000 tonne oil rig – Leiv Eiriksson - as it makes its way along ‘Iceberg Alley’ to Baffin Bay, where Cairn is due to begin drilling four new exploratory oil wells. Danish navy commando units are guarding the oil rig as it travels to the drill site.
The Liev Eiriksson plans to drill depths of around 1500m – similar depths to the ill-fated BP well in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier this week, we released documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws showing British government officials briefing Ministers in private, that in the event of an oil spill in the Arctic, it would be ‘near impossible to make good damage caused’ and admitting, ‘emergency responses would be slower and harder than in the Gulf of Mexico.’ Cairn Energy has kept their oil spill response plans, which are supposed to detail how they would respond in the event of a spill in the Arctic, completely secret.
Today we sent a letter with the two other biggest green groups in Scotland - Friends of the Earth Scotland and WWF Scotland - to Sir Bill Gammell, the CEO of Cairn Energy, demanding he stop hiding his company’s oil spill response plans.
Take Action! Tell Cairn to publish their Arctic oil spill response plan now