A decision by a British oil company to start drilling wells in “iceberg alley” off Greenland has been described as “completely irresponsible” by environmental groups in the light of BP’s problems in the Gulf of Mexico.
Cairn Energy said it had begun the first of four exploration wells on the Alpha prospect in Arctic waters of up to 500m after receiving permission from the Greenland government.
Greenpeace said the move was wrong, not least because Cairn was a relatively small company with no harsh-conditions drilling experience that had made its name discovering oil onshore in India.
“We think it is completely irresponsible for Cairn to proceed with these operations when the US, Canada and Norway have imposed tough new restrictions on deepwater drilling until lessons can be learned about what exactly went wrong in the Gulf,” said Mads Flarup Christensen, secretary general of Greenpeace Nordic.
“Drilling in these kinds of waters is very sad. It shows the way the oil industry is being forced into the last frontiers by trying to exploit tar sands and deep water,” he said.
Greenpeace has written to Greenland’s Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist, urging him to call a halt to the Cairn drilling program, but admits there is little sign of its request being granted. The green group believes the country is overlooking the risks because it is desperate to find new income sources, having recently won political independence from Denmark.
The wildlife charity WWF is also concerned about the Arctic drilling.
“The Gulf of Mexico is the world’s center of drilling technology with thousands of engineers and immense resources in terms of boats, planes, control equipment and manufacturing facilities — and even here it is proving immensely difficult to handle the tragic events of the Gulf of Mexico blowout,” said Dan Barlow, WWF’s head of policy.
“It is time for countries to recognize that offshore drilling with current technology and response capability poses unacceptable risks in the Arctic, where conditions are far more extreme. The consequences of such an event in the cold climate would lead to a persistence of ecological damage over many decades.”
Cairn management recently visited the Greenland capital of Nuuk to reassure the public that it would stick to the highest possible safety standards in line with an agreement signed with the government.
“Security has always been the most important in everything we do and so we want it to continue,” commercial director Simon Thomson said.
The company said last night that it had put in place a very wide-ranging plan for dealing with all kinds of emergencies — including the use of two drilling units so a second could drill a relief well instantly if needed. A spokesman said the company had worked in depths of water twice as deep when it was in the Bay of Bengal and was employing staff with plenty of hard-weather experience.
Jorn Skov Nielsen, director of the bureau of minerals and petroleum in Greenland, said Cairn would be working to the highest possible standards — considerably higher than was required of BP in the Gulf:
“These are standard wells, not deepwater ones, but they will still be drilled to the strongest Norwegian rules and under plans we have developed over the last 10 years,” Nielsen said.
Concerns about offshore work have been high since the Deepwater Horizon rig working for BP blew up, leaving the US with its worst ever oil spill. BP and Washington are waiting to hear from a series of investigation teams exactly what went wrong and who, if anyone, was to blame. The incident caused US President Barack Obama to block any new deepwater wells being drilled, though this ruling has been challenged in the US courts.
The new EU commissioner for energy, Gunther Oettinger, said this week that there should be no deepwater drilling in the North Sea, a move that has infuriated the UK oil industry.
The commission has no direct jurisdiction over British offshore waters and the UK government is unlikely to listen to this advice. Energy secretary Chris Huhne has already doubled the number of oil industry inspectors and said many more safety checks will take place in the future.
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) attended a grand ceremony in Lhasa yesterday during a rare visit to Tibet, where he urged “ethnic unity and religious harmony” in a region where China is accused of human rights abuses. The vast high-altitude area on the country’s western edge, established as an autonomous region in 1965 — six years after the 14th Dalai Lama fled into exile — was once a hotbed for protest against Chinese Communist Party rule. Rights groups accuse Beijing’s leaders of suppressing Tibetan culture and imposing massive surveillance, although authorities claim their policies have fostered stability and rapid economic development in
RSS