Cairn Energy's Oil Spill Response Plan "Lot Of Spin," Says Greenpeace
On Monday, disaster plans by Cairn Energy were released by the Greenland government that tout the ability to solve spills at speeds up to 10,000 barrels per day.
Bloomberg reports Greenland's Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum placed the nation's worst case scenario at 5,000 barrels per day. But, with "cooperation in the global network," officials say the oil plan could handle double the spillage.
"In the unlikely event of a serious incident, we’ve put in place a robust contingency plan," said David Nisbet, a spokesman at Cairn. "Exploration in the Arctic and sub-Arctic is not new and about 2,500 exploration wells have been drilled there."
Although Cairn has drilled at least a dozen wells in the Arctic North, none have yet struck oil.
Greenland officials said the papers were kept confidential until now due to a "large number of unlawful actions aimed at the safety measures at oil exploration."
Ben Ayliffe, an oil campaigner for Greenpeace, told the BBC that the document amounts to a "lot of spin" and has "very little to allay the concerns" of critics.
"Cairn never wanted to release this document, they were forced to by international outrage from tens of thousands of people who bombarded them with emails," he said. "Our experts will now analyze it and fully expect it to confirm what the UK government said in private documents, that an Arctic spill would be 'near impossible' to clean up."
Over the past 12 months, representatives of the environmental group Greenpeace have planned and participated in a variety of activist actions against the oil company.
In July, a team of 17 people staged a sit-in at Cairn's headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland. They demanded to see a copy of the oil spill response plan.
Cairn later pursued legal action to stop activists from posting pictures and comments about the protest on Twitter. After an injunction was ordered by the Scottish court, hundreds of Greenpeace supporters around the world rebelled by posting information on both Twitter and Facebook.
A spokesman for Cairn told the Guardian its intentions were "not in any way, shape or form to shut down or 'gag' debate."
"This is a duty to all sorts of people including employees, partners and shareholders," the spokesman continued. "Of course we are not going to take action where none is warranted."
