Climbers who scaled Cairn rig deported

Published on Saturday 4 September 2010 19:08

FOUR Greenpeace climbers who scaled an oil rig in the freezing seas off Greenland and stopped it drilling for two days were deported to their home countries yesterday.

The activists were arrested on September 2 after forcing Scots-based Cairn Energy to cease all Arctic drilling operations for 40 hours. After severe weather forced them to end their occupation of the Stena Don drilling rig, they were arrested and flown 150km to the Aasiaat on Greenland.

The activists were taken to the airport by Danish police and put on flights home to Poland, Germany, Finland and the USA.

They were charged with trespassing and with breaching the 500m zone around the rig. They have had all their non-personal equipment confiscated and were fined 20,000 Danish Krona each (about 2,200).

Speaking from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, which is on a tour of dangerous oil drilling sites as part of a campaign for a ban on deepwater oil drilling, Greenpeace Nordic climate change campaigner Jon Burgwald said:

"Our climbers spent two days hanging from Cairn's Stena Don drilling rig, just meters above the frigid Arctic waters in freezing conditions, but every minute they were up there was another minute Cairn Energy couldn't drill. We want to stop them sparking an arctic oil rush."

The Esperanza will now leave Greenlandic waters, but the ship's Go Beyond Oil tour will continue.

Later this month, environment ministers from countries bordering the North Sea will meet in Norway, where Germany is proposing a moratorium on new deepwater drilling. Greenpeace is backing the call.

In a letter to Greenpeace Cairn Energy says it is basing its Arctic investment on an International Energy Agency report which suggests that, by 2030, fossil fuels will still supply about 80 per cent of the world's energy.