Company executives turned up to work to find the entrance blocked by a life-sized polar bear. At the same time as this peaceful direct action in Scotland, a Greenpeace ship 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. Yet, last year when Cairn Energy began drilling in the waters off Greenland they had just had 14 vessels capable of dealing with a spill. By contrast, BP’s response in the Gulf of Mexico needed 6,500 boats and more than 50,000 people. (4)
Earlier this week, Greenpeace 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.’ (5)
Today the directors of the country’s three biggest green groups - WWF Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland and Greenpeace UK - wrote to Sir Bill Gammell, the CEO of Cairn Energy, demanding he stop hiding his company’s oil spill response plans. (3) Cairn Energy has kept these documents, which are supposed to detail how they would respond in the event of a spill in the Arctic, completely secret.
Speaking from Edinburgh, Greenpeace oil campaigner, Rachel Murray, said:
“Cairn Energy are putting at risk the safety of one of the most fragile and important natural environments on Earth in a dangerous gamble to strike oil. Scientists are warning, and even British government officials are admitting, that a spill in the Arctic would be near impossible to clear up. It’s obvious the reason Cairn Energy’s bosses are keeping their oil spill response plans so secret is because these documents would expose how ill-prepared they are for a Gulf of Mexico type disaster.”
The drilling is to take place in Baffin Bay one of the most pristine and fragile natural areas in the world, home to important and vulnerable wildlife including almost all of the world’s Narwhal population as well as blue whales, sea bird colonies, and polar bears.
Last month the prestigious scientific journal Nature carried an article by former US government scientist Jeffrey Short and another scientist called Susan Murray, which stated, “A large spill in the Arctic could not be contained or mitigated, and we should stop pretending otherwise. Sea ice can envelop oil and transport it considerable distances. A blow out during autumn would spill among growing ice floes, spreading contamination further than it could be tracked and concentrating oil in the ice holes through which marine mammals breathe.” (6)
- ENDS -
For more information/interviews:
Joss Garman Greenpeace UK Communications in Edinburgh +44 7815 004 578
Greenpeace International 24-hour press desk on +31 20 718 2470
Greenpeace Picture Desk, 
, +31629001152
Greenpeace Video Desk, 
, +31 62494 1063
Notes:
(1) For the Greenpeace briefing about the dangers of Arctic oil drilling:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/publications/reports/ArcticBriefing/
(2) For the Greenpeace briefing about Cairn Energy:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/publications/reports/CairnEnergy/
(3) For a copy of the letter see: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/sites/files/gpuk/Letter to Gammell.pdf
(4) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/o/2755c62c-8926-11df-8ecd-00144feab49a.html
(5) For copies of these documents see http://www.greenpeace.org http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/UK-Government-Documents-on-Arctic-Drilling/
(6) www.nature.com/nature/journal/v472/n7342/full/472162a.html