Cairn Energy formally launched its summer oil drilling program off the west coast of Greenland Tuesday, as the environmental group Greenpeace stepped up protests of the Scottish oil company's Arctic activity.
Greenpeace had two ships near the 53,000-tonne Leiv Eiriksson oil rig. An activist aboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza said an oil spill off Greenland would be "all but impossible" to clean up.
"We want this ship to get out of the Arctic," said Ben Ayliffe, a senior oil campaigner with Greenpeace, from the Esperanza, located around 50 kilometres southwest of Nuuk in the Davis Strait off Greenland's west coast.
Ayliffe said drilling in Arctic waters can't be done safely and that a spill would devastate marine mammal populations in the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay.
He said both the oil rig and the Greenland government have refused to release a spill response plan to Greenpeace.
Jorn Skov Nielsen, the director of Greenland's Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, said Cairn's drilling licence was granted with extensive regulations based on Norway's strict rules for drilling in the North Sea.
Nielsen said a second drill ship is always near the rig to drill a relief well in the event of a blowout, and another dozen ships laden with oil spill response equipment are circling the Leiv Eiriksson at all times.
The environmental organization says Cairn Energy's exploration program in Greenland is a disaster in the making, citing hazards such as the steady stream of icebergs in Davis Strait, an area that is often dubbed "Iceberg Alley."
"This is the extreme end of extreme oil drilling," said Ben Ayliffe, a Greenpeace member aboard one of the organization's two ships.
"It is crazy to think that Cairn Energy [is] just rushing in here with all these risks."
Cairn Energy crews had to move icebergs out of the drilling area every day during the company's exploration program last year.
Thomson said there are risks and dangers to drilling in Baffin Bay, but he added that those risks are being exaggerated. As well, the company has assured the Greenland government that it can drill safely, he added.
Stringent requirements
"We have to satisfy stringent requirements, and the Greenland government [itself gets] effective third-party auditing," Thomson said.
"It's a very rigorous process we have to go through to ensure that they are comfortable before they approve our drilling program."
The outcome of Cairn Energy's exploration efforts will likely be watched by several other major companies that hold oil and gas exploration licences in the Arctic, including Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil.
Government officials in Canada will also be monitoring the situation, given that Nunavut is on the other side of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay.
Concerns about Cairn Energy's exploratory drilling are already being raised by fisheries officials in Nunavut's Baffin Island region, which is home to a turbot fishery in Davis Strait.
Betting the house on a gold rush from oil at this stage is a very risky thing to do," he said.
But Nielsen said Greenland has every right to explore for oil within its own waters.
"It's a coastal state's sovereign right to . . . exploit their natural resources as long as they do it in accordance with international practice."
Greenpeace released documents it obtained through an access to information request containing correspondence between British government officials and the country's energy secretary, Chris Huhne, warning Arctic oil spills pose massive technical challenges and environmental risks.
Those concerns echo statements in Canada about the risks of Arctic oil exploration.
Larry Bagnell, the former Liberal MP for Yukon, called last year for a moratorium on drilling in Arctic waters.
Officials with the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. — the body that oversees promises made under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement — worry Canada lacks the equipment and manpower to handle even minor oil spills in Nunavut waters.
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