Banks| Policies| Dodgy Deals| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2022-06-02 00:00:00
GFANZ must tighten the screw on fossil fuel expansion
2022-05-19 00:00:00
BNP Paribas and Société Générale: stop financing climate destruction and human rights abuses
2022-05-04 00:00:00
Barclays is big on beef and burning
2022-05-04 00:00:00
Standard Chartered’s 2022 AGM dominated by shareholder alarm over fossil financing
2022-05-20 15:14:47
Seven financiers abandon TotalEnergies' EACOP pipeline in a week
2021-12-16 13:33:02
Cambo oil field "paused" following pressure on Shell & banks
2021-12-16 13:04:42
Equator Principles improve transparency after BankTrack shows the way
2021-11-02 11:03:26
ANZ launches human rights grievance mechanism in a first for the global banking sector
Connect
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2022
2022-03-08 00:00:00
BankTrack Annual Report 2021
2022-03-03 00:00:00
Locked out of a Just Transition: fossil fuel financing in Africa
2021-12-14 00:00:00
Actions speak louder: Assessing bank responses to human rights violations
2021-10-26 00:00:00
Equator Compliant Climate Destruction: How banks finance fossil fuels under the Equator Principles
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Home › News
Live Action: Climbers in survival pod stop Arctic oil rig
Start

By: Nick Young, Greenpeace
2011-05-29
Arctic

Share this page:

Photo: Greenpeace
Go to:
Start

In the freezing seas off Greenland, activists from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza are taking direct action against oil drilling in the Arctic.

Luke and Sigurd are now hanging from the underside of Cairn Energy's giant oil rig in our Arctic survival pod with enough food and water to stay there for for a good long time. Their action will prevent the rig starting its dangerous deep water drilling 100 miles west of the Greenland coast.

There will be live updates from the survival pod on the oil rig, and from the two Greenpeace ships near by.


Click to enlarge

 

Here's what's happened so far.

At 3am local time three climbers left the side of the Esperanza in inflatable speedboats. They slipped past the navy warship guarding the rig and climbed high into the superstructure of the 53,000 tonne Leiv Eiriksson oil rig.

They're now hanging from the underside of the rig 20-30 meters above the sea where they've set up camp in the survival pod hanging only a few metres from the huge drill-bit.

 If drilling is delayed for just a short time, Cairn could struggle to meet a tight deadline to complete the exploration before winter ice closes in, forcing it to abandon the search for another year.

Speaking by satellite phone from the survival pod 25 year old Luke said:

"Despite the extreme waters below, we're safe and secure. There's no way Cairn can drill for oil while we're hanging next to their drill-bit, and it's going to be extremely difficult for them to remove our survival pod. To drill for oil here would be dangerous insanity. We have to stop the Arctic oil rush."

Greenpeace International has repeatedly asked Cairn for its emergency oil spill response plan but has been refused. That request was repeated to the rig by radio several times this week, but was ignored.  You can see a video of one of those calls here.

You can support the action by emailing Cairn energy to ask them for the oil spill recovery plan.

The world's oil giants are watching Cairn's rig with great interest. If it strikes oil this summer Exxon, Chevron and the other big oil companies (which have already bought up Greenland licenses) will begin drilling in the area and the Arctic oil rush will be on.

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 - including 180 tonnes of red-listed chemicals (more than all annual oil drilling operations in Norway and Denmark combined). The company admits that it would take decades before significant profits from oil exploration flow to Greenland, while Cairn's operations pose a grave threat to Greenland's fisheries, which represent 88% of the island's export economy.

The area where 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 admitted it will need 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 narwhal population.

  • View the action live via the Esperanza web cam
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted