{"id":2205,"date":"2010-08-31T21:00:55","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T21:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=2205"},"modified":"2010-08-31T21:01:47","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T21:01:47","slug":"2205","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2010\/08\/31\/2205\/","title":{"rendered":"Gobeyondoil.com: Greenpeace climbers scale rig in freezing seas as energy giants eye Arctic oil rush"},"content":{"rendered":"

FYI, this peaceful protest to halt dangerous offshore exploratory
\ndrilling in the Arctic went off in the wee hours of the morning
\nGreenland time. For more info and updates please go to http:\/\/www.gobeyondoil.org\/
\nRichard Charter<\/em><\/p>\n

31st August 2010, Baffin Bay, Greenland – Campaigners have evaded a huge
\nmilitary security operation to scale a controversial oil rig in the
\nfreezing seas off Greenland. At dawn this morning four expert climbers
\nin inflatable speedboats dodged Danish Navy commandos before climbing up
\nthe inside of the rig and hanging from it in tents suspended from ropes,
\nhalting its drilling operation (video and stills available).<\/p>\n

The climbers have enough supplies to occupy the hanging tents for
\nseveral days. If they succeed in stopping drilling for just a short time
\nthen the operators, Britain’s Cairn Energy, will struggle to meet a
\ntight deadline to complete the exploration before winter ice conditions
\nforce it to abandon the search for oil off Greenland until next year.<\/p>\n

Sim McKenna from the United States, one of the campaigners hanging
\nfifteen metres above the bitterly cold Arctic ocean, said: “We’ve got to
\nkeep the energy companies out of the Arctic and kick our addiction to
\noil, that’s why we’re going to stop this rig from drilling for as long
\nas we can. The BP Gulf oil disaster showed us it’s time to go beyond
\noil. The drilling rig we’re hanging off could spark an Arctic oil rush,
\none that would pose a huge threat to the climate and put this fragile
\nenvironment at risk.”<\/p>\n

McKenna, who had been helping with the Gulf clean-up operation before
\njoining the Greenpeace ship the Esperanza in the Arctic, continued:
\n“Right now this platform is the most important oil rig in the world. If
\nwe can stop them striking oil here in the next few weeks we’ll hold back
\nthe oil giants for at least another year, hopefully gaining enough time
\nfor a global ban on dangerous deepwater drilling projects like this to
\nbe enacted.”<\/p>\n

A Danish Thetis-class 120m warship, commandos in speed boats and a
\nflotilla of police boats have been shadowing the Esperanza for the last
\nnine days. The rig has been forced to stop drilling because any breach
\nof the 500m security zone around it results in a routine shutdown. It is
\ncurrently drilling in volcanic rock, having failed to strike oil, and is
\ndue to move soon to a new drill site 100km away. The campaigners hope
\ntoday’s occupation will delay the move or even cause it to be cancelled.<\/p>\n

Last week Cairn announced it had struck gas at a site a few miles from
\nthe occupied rig, but not oil. The fragile environment west of Disko
\nIsland is known as Iceberg Alley due to the plentiful icebergs and tough
\nconditions. This has deterred oil companies from attempting exploration
\nthere in recent years, but the world’s oil giants are watching the Cairn
\nproject with great interest. If the Edinburgh-based company strikes oil,
\nanalysts expect a new Arctic oil rush, with Exxon, Chevron and other
\nenergy giants already buying up licenses to drill in the area and making
\npreparations to move in.<\/p>\n

Jon Burgwald, a Greenpeace campaigner onboard the Esperanza, which is
\nabout a kilometre from the occupied platform, said: “Instead of letting
\nthe oil companies drill for the last drops of oil in pristine places
\nlike the Arctic, our governments should be pushing the development of
\nthe clean energy technologies we need to fight climate change and reduce
\nour dependence on dirty fuels. We already have the tools we need to go
\nbeyond oil, all that’s missing is the determination to make it happen
\nquickly. That’s why we have to stop this rig from drilling for as long
\nas we can. We can’t let the oil giants take us all in the wrong
\ndirection by opening up the Arctic seas to a new oil rush.”<\/p>\n

The crew of the Esperanza includes Waldemar Wichmann, the Captain from
\nArgentina; Annkatrin Schneider, deck hand from Germany; Ben Stewart and
\nLeila Deen from the UK; Jon Burgwald from Denmark; Victor Rask from
\nSweden; Mateusz Emeschajmer from Poland; Timo Puohiniemi from Finland;
\nDanielle, Second Mate from Australia; Mannas, Chief Engineer from
\nHolland; and Sim McKenna from the USA.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

For more information contact Szabina Mozes, Greenpeace International
\nCommunication on +31 646 16 2023<\/p>\n

For video and stills contact Melissa Thompson, Greenpeace International
\nVideo Desk: + 31 621 296899; Emma Stoner, Greenpeace International
\nPicture Desk: +44 (0)207 865 8230+31<\/p>\n

To speak to a campaigner off the coast of Greenland contact Ben Stewart,
\nLeila Dean or Jon Burgwald on the Esperanza on +8816 7770 1411 or +8816
\n7770 1412 or +8816 7770 1413.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

* The U.S. government calculates that the chance of a major spill
\noccurring over the lifetime of a single block of leases in its own
\nArctic waters is greater than 20% – while those odds increase with every
\nextra license granted. If the Cairn operation strikes oil the number of
\nwells sunk off Greenland would increase dramatically. The well being
\ndrilled by Cairn is at a depth of 300-500 metres, while the moratorium
\nintroduced by President Barack Obama after the Deepwater Horizon
\ndisaster applies to wells deeper than 152 metres. Cairn has refused to
\npublish a comprehensive plan for how it would deal with a spill from the
\nplatform, and has just 14 vessels capable of reacting to a spill (BP’s
\nresponse in the Gulf of Mexico required more than 3000 vessels).<\/p>\n

* Drilling west of Greenland is limited to a ‘summer window’
\nbetween July and early October. After this date, sea-ice becomes too
\nthick to allow vessels to operate and relief wells cannot be drilled
\neffectively. The area which contains the occupied rig is known locally
\nas ‘iceberg alley’. Cairn is having to tow icebergs out of the rig’s
\npath or use water cannons to divert them. If the icebergs are too large
\nthe company has pledged to move the rig itself to avoid a collision.
\nLast month a 260km2 ice island broke off the Petermann glacier north of
\nDisko island and will eventually make its way south through Nares Strait
\ninto Baffin Bay and the Labrador Current before reaching the area where
\ndrilling is taking place.<\/p>\n

* Cairn is run by Sir Bill Gammell, a childhood friend of both
\nTony Blair and George W Bush. When Bush first met Blair his opening
\nwords were: “I hear you know my friend Bill Gammell.” Last week Gammell
\nsold Cairn’s Indian operation for $9.2bn to fund the Greenland project,
\ndescribing the Arctic as his “Plan A, B and C.”[i]<\/p>\n

* Baffin Bay is home to 80 to 90% of the world’s Narwhals. The
\nregion is also home to blue whales, polar bears, seals, sharks,
\ncormorants, kittiwakes and numerous other migratory birds.<\/p>\n

* Cairn’s Greenland project is representative of a new approach to
\nmodern oil exploration, where self-styled ‘wildcat’ companies take on
\nhuge financial and technical risks in the hope of hitting a previously
\nundiscovered reservoir of oil. The company’s complete lack of in-house
\ninfrastructure and failure to provide a comprehensive spill response
\nplan raises serious questions about Cairn’s ability to deal with an
\naccident in one of the most hostile environments on earth.<\/p>\n

* According to Gammell, the company seeks ‘big acreage’ to give it
\na wide area for exploration, in contrast to the smaller parcels that are
\nroutinely found in the North Sea for example. The dangers of this
\napproach become clear in the event of a spill, where the operation’s
\nremote location means there is little infrastructure already in place to
\nbegin any clean up operation.<\/p>\n

Ben Ayliffe | Senior Energy Solutions Campaigner
\nGreenpeace UK
\nt: 020 7865 8210
\nm: 07815 708 683
\ns: benayliffe<\/p>\n

www.gobeyondoil.org<\/p>\n

Special thanks to Richard Charter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading Gobeyondoil.com: Greenpeace climbers scale rig in freezing seas as energy giants eye Arctic oil rush<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2205"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2207,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2205\/revisions\/2207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}