UK govt documents reveal Arctic spill impossible to clean up

UK govt documents reveal Arctic spill impossible to clean up

Greenland, 24th May 2011– Two Greenpeace ships are in a tense stand-off with Danish navy commandos protecting an oil drilling operation in the freezing seas off Greenland.

The environmental campaigners have been involved in a week long search for the giant 53,000 tonne Leiv Eiriksson – the only oil rig scheduled to begin new off-shore arctic drilling operations this year. They found it last night 200 miles west of Greenland under escort by a Danish warship.

Greenpeace today released confidential UK Foreign Office documents, obtained under Freedom of Information, showing that the British government thinks an Arctic oil spill would be all but impossible to clean up.

Greenpeace International oil campaigner Ben Ayliffe is on board the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, within sight of the rig and its escort - a 120 metre Thetis-class NATO warship. He said: “The risks involved in Arctic deep water drilling make working in the Gulf of Mexico look like a walk in the park. An oil spill clean up operation here would be all but impossible, and it’s not just us saying that, that’s what the British government thinks too. Cairn Energy’s operations are reckless in the extreme and should be abandoned, and their rig should leave the Arctic immediately.”

The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise is also on the scene.

The documents, published today on the Greenpeace website, show the UK government’s private concerns about the impact of an Arctic spill. In an email exchange British government officials told the UK Energy Secretary Chris Huhne: "It is difficult to get assistance in case of pollution problems in such areas, and near impossible to make good damage caused." Another document reports: “Considerable challenges remain. The most significant of these is environmental – and the possibility of a second Gulf of Mexico type event … The Arctic ecosystem is particularly vulnerable and emergency responses would be slower and harder than in the Gulf of Mexico due to the area’s remoteness and the difficulty of operating in sub-zero temperatures.”

Even without an accident Cairn admits its drilling operation will result in at least 9,000 tonnes of toxic chemicals being discharged directly into the waters of the Davis Strait –releasing more red-listed chemicals than all annual oil drilling operations in Norway and Denmark combined.

The area Cairn intends to drill is known as ‘Iceberg Alley'. The company intends to tow icebergs out of the rig's path or use water cannons to divert them to avoid a collision as the rig drills for oil. If the icebergs are too large the company has pledged to move the rig itself. Last year a 260km2 ice island broke off the Petermann glacier north of Iceberg Alley. The region is famous for its populations of blue whales, polar bears, seals and migratory birds.

ENDS

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