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Environmental Awareness Through Media ProductionsArchive for Cairn Energy
Greenland Release Cairn Energy’s Oil Spill Response Plan
Thanks to the hard work of Greenpeace, who have got in numerous scrapes with the law in order to see this happen, the oil-spill response plan drawn up by Cairn Energy, the company at the forefront of Arctic oil drilling, has been published on the internet. In the end it was the Greenland government, in whose waters Cairn is currently trying to drill, who released the elusive document after tens of thousands of emails were sent by Greenpeace supporters and concerned members of the public. The full document can be seen here (warning: large PDF) on the government’s website. Greenpeace activists have tried on numerous occasions to find Cairn’s oil-spill response plan, including boarding a Cairn oil rig in the Arctic and invading Cairn’s HQ in Edinburgh.
Greenpeace Attempt to Find Elusive Disaster Response Plans On Board Cairn’s Rig
www.greenpeace.org.uk, www.independent.co.uk 4th June 2011
Cairn Energy, based out of Edinburgh, Scotland, have been at the forefront of Arctic oil exploration with its rig Leiv Eiriksson and one other already in operation off the coast of Greenland. However, the company has repeatedly refused to reveal its plans in the event of an oil spill similar to the Deepwater Horizon explosion off the US Coast last year. In response to the company’s refusal, Greenpeace launched an ambitious raid on the Leiv rig in order to ask workers if they had heard of the plan. 18 activists in 5 outriggers managed to evade Danish naval patrol vessels and reach the rig from where the Greenpeace ship Esperanza was moored just outside the 500m exclusion zone established by the Danish authorities. All the protestors have since been arrested and their mission to discover the disaster plans proved to be futile with all crew denying its even existence. Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe, speaking from on board the Leiv Eiriksson, said, ”It’s obvious why Cairn won’t tell the world how it would clean up a BP-style oil spill here in the Arctic, and that’s because it can’t be done. Experts say the freezing temperatures and remote location mean a deep water blow-out in this stunning pristine environment would be an irreversible disaster. If they published the plan, the dangers of investing in such a high risk venture would be laid bare.” Cairn energy are now seeking to make Greenpeace protests illegal through the Danish courts.
