Greenland Minerals

Off-limit zone experiencing
growing pains
Extended safety zone around drilling rig is to stop activists
Until recently, the Self-Rule government refused to grant
the public insight into Cairn Energy’s oil spill contingency
plan. The secrecy was justified due to concerns that if the
contingency plans had been made public, they could have
been sabotaged. The government stressed that Greenpeace
five times has carried out illegal protests against
Cairn Energy’s oil prospecting operations.
The government moved to declassify the plan after the
Danish Foreign Ministry reviewed the UN Convention
on the Law of the Sea, and concluded that Greenlandic
authorities can intervene to stop an illegal action at a distance
of five kilometres from a drilling platform’s security
zone.
“These new options make it easier to tackle illegal actions
against the drilling platforms’ security installations. For this
reason, the government now finds it prudent to oblige the
public’s wish to view the plan,” said Ove Karl Berthelsen,
the industry and mineral resources minister.
However, Greenpeace said it was sceptical of this explanation.
“I question that this is what lies behind the secrecy, but
the most important thing is that the plan can now be
viewed in its entirety,” Greenpeace spokesperson Jon
Burgwald.
By Mads Nyvold
Greenpeace denies sabotage
accusations
During the early part of summer 2010, several people
exhibited suspicious conduct at the harbour in Aasiaat.
The police noted that they were in the vicinity of containers
containing oil containment equipment. But when they
attempted to question the group, they fled the scene.
Jørn Skov Nielsen, the head of the Bureau of Minerals and
Petroleum, and Ove Karl Berthelsen, the industry and mineral
resources minister, interpreted the incident as the first
indication that someone was planning to sabotage Cairn
Energy’s oil prospecting.
This suspicion is noted in an eight point list which the
pair presented as justification for keeping the company’s
oil spill contingency plan secret until now. Greenpeace
is mentioned in all the other points, and a Greenpeace
employee was reportedly in Aasiaat during the time period
described.
However, Greenpeace said the employee had a different
description of the sequence of events.
“He was at no point in time sneaking about the containers,
just like he was never approached by the police and he
never fled,” said Greenpeace spokesperson Jon Burgwald.
The list also describes how 18 Greenpeace activists broke
into the drilling platform Leiv Eiriksson on June 4. They
locked themselves into the crane cabins in protest against
the contingency plans being kept secret.
“This action was direct sabotage again the oil spill contingency,
as the occupation of the two cranes on the platform
meant that it would have been impossible to move
contingency equipment into place should an oil spill have
occurred at the time of the action,” Nielsen and Berthelsen
said in a statement.
Burgwald, however, argued that activists had no way of
knowing that the cranes would be used in a clean-up effort,
since the plans were being kept secret.
“For precisely this reason it makes no sense to accuse the
activists of consciously trying to disrupt the contingency
measures. Furthermore, the drilling activities ground to a
halt at the very moment the activists entered the safety
zone of 500 metres,” Burgwald said.
By Mads Nyvold
Oil & Minerals #2 31