Arctic oil company's lawsuit against us backfires

Posted by nick_gp - 7 June 2011 at 10:03am - Comments

Confronting Cairn's oil drilling in the Arctic

Today an Amsterdam court judge turned the tables on Cairn Energy. Rather than granting an injunction against Greenpeace, he instead suggested that the oil company might actually like to consider releasing its secret Arctic Oil Spill Response Plan!

Cairn's lawyers looked dumbfounded and stuttered about not knowing why their client won't release it.

The judge went on to say that BP's skimping on a second valve cost the world billions as a result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. He said BP must regret that they didn't have their plans scrutinized in the first place because someone would have noticed the lack of a second valve. Safety is in everyone's interest - by being transparent perhaps there is an opportunity to make the spill plan stronger. In fact, he asked Cairn, why they won't you release your plan? Right now? Why don't you release it now?

We couldn't have said it better.

We'll try and get this news through to the eighteen activists currently in jail in Greenland. They were arrested after scaling Cairn's rig in the Arctic on Saturday to demand the plan be made public. For them this will be happy vindication of their action.

Cairn's lawyers used the same tired excuses saying they could not release the plan as this would be against the wishes of the Greenlandic authorities. However our independent legal advice shows that this is a load of rubbish.

There is nothing whatsoever stopping Cairn releasing the plan.

By this time the Cairn lawyers were sweating a bit but the judge still wasn't finished.

He went on to ask how Cairn would pay for any oil spill clean up. He was highly unimpressed when Cairn's legal team tried to reassure him that it had a cap on financial exposure. The judge said he didn't think the concern is over the health of Cairn's finances - the concern is the impact on the environment and the cost of the clean up!

So, now that the Dutch court is joining us and the 18 activists currently jailed in Greenland in demanding the secret oil spill response plan be made public.

Cairn should cease drilling operations immediately. It does not need to wait for the final ruling to release the secret spill plan. They can do it now. Their claim in court that they cannot because Greenland is preventing it is bogus. Every minute it's allowed to drill in the Arctic poses an unacceptable threat to the pristine environment in a search for oil we cannot afford to burn.

Cairn took a beating in the court room today trying to silence peaceful protest and hide from public scrutiny. The people of Greenland should be very worried about the kind of people who are drilling for oil off their coast. And their investors should be asking themselves just what it is that no one is being allowed to see, and how big a risk they are exposing themselves to.

The Judge will make a final ruling on the injunction on Wednesday evening. It's not over yet - so watch this space.

For now we'll stay put here in the Davis Strait off the coast of Greenland.

Article tagged as: arctic, cairn, climate, oil, oil spill

Comments Commenting is now closed

What a result! There's a judge who is not only learned but sensible and straight-talking too.

Any more clever anwswers Cairn?

By Mike Noble - 7 June 2011 at 4:37pm

1 person agrees

This judgement vindicates all your actions against the Cairn Drilling Rig and justifies the risks taken by your team in the Arctic. Well done. Keep up the pressure on these money grubbing rogues.

Irvin Bowley.

By Irvin Bowley - 7 June 2011 at 5:10pm

1 person agrees

The judge is absolutely right. If Cairn can't prove they're acting safely, why should an injunction be served against Greenpeace for stopping them? Greenpeace are in the right here. Cairn need to make the spill response plan public (if they have one) to see if it stands up to scrutiny.

By Neil Jones - 7 June 2011 at 5:25pm

1 person agrees

If the courts can see the sense in preventing disasters why can't Cairn? Peer review is common (and welcomed) in most industries.

Cairn's lawyers remark about a cap on financial exposure is telling. That is exactly the problem which Greenpeace set out to expose. If there is a spill it looks like Cairn plans to walk away...

By Jothma - 7 June 2011 at 5:33pm

1 person agrees

I wonder what the Polar Bear has to say about the judge's comments. On June 5th he posted 28 lines in capitals saying THE PLAN'S BEEN PUBLISHED. A Polar Bear with a RED FACE, now that's something I'd pay good money to see. Irvin Bowley.

By Irvin Bowley - 7 June 2011 at 5:37pm

Brilliant news - a judge that can see through the Cairn attempt to stifle Greenpeace. Maybe Cairn will take notice of the judge's comments and make the plan public. How telling that Cairn's reaction to the comment about the cost of a cleanup was to reassure the judge that the company would be safeguarded because of a cap on their liability - shows just where they are coming from !!

Once again brilliant stuff from Greenpeace and thank goodness for a judge that can see Cairn's actions for what they are !

By Liz Gould - 7 June 2011 at 6:33pm

Absolutely, transparency is the key. The judge was very astute in his comments in suggesting an open book policy on its oil spill response plan. Let’s hope Greenpeace with the support of the judge can now force Cairn oil to produce a document for public scrutiny.

By Katy Bowley - 7 June 2011 at 7:58pm

Just had this 'moderated' for some reason over at GP International, can't think why:

Well what do we have here:

Article:

Cairn's lawyers used the same tired excuses saying they could not
release the plan as this would be against the wishes of the Greenlandic
authorities. However our independent legal advice shows that this is a
load of rubbish.

the Greenlandic
authorities:

The “BMP Emergency Management Programme, Hydrocarbon Activities,
Greenland” is a confidential document in order to protect personnel,
telephone numbers, emergency storage buildings etc.

What was that GP? Cairn was right all along, you say? The spill plan was resricted by the Greenlanders and not Cairn? You were wrong utterly and totally? You lied to a judge, really?

Thanks for playing.

By Daithesci - 7 June 2011 at 10:25pm

The Greenlandic Authorities quote was from here: http://www.bmp.gl/petroleum/emergency-response

By Daithesci - 7 June 2011 at 10:26pm

I have an humble question.

If they have a plan and they show us a plan. Then what? If the plan is well done and follow all the rules then what?

Axing all this campaign on "SHOW US THE PLAN" is very dangerous because if they show up with a plan, who' going to decide if it's a good one or not?

Was the one in the gulf a good one? It helped?

Come on, be more pragmatic here Greenpeace. Stop them because they don't have too drill there. It's too risky. And that's all we know.

By Heiland Stark - 8 June 2011 at 5:33pm

ALL THAT DUMPING OF OIL AND CHEMICALS DOWN IN AFRICA, WE DON'T SEE YOU BRAVE ENOUGH TO GET YOU LAZY BACK SIDES DOWN THERE DO WE?! YOUR ASS WOULD BE CARVED INTO SOMETHING SPECIAL BEFORE YOU KNOW IT! - PREFERABLY SOMETHING THAT COULD BE PILED HARD INTO THE SEABED!

SEE ALL YOU DRUGY'S OUT THERE ON THEM SHIPS, SENT OUT THERE TO DETOX BY YOUR RICH PARENTS, GET A REAL JOB AN STOP TRYING TO JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTANCE, DO US ALL A FAVOUR. ....... TAKE A SHOWER ASWELL WHILE YOUR AT IT YOU FILTHY ANIMALS! HORRIBLE CREATURES!

By jumpin jay - 9 June 2011 at 1:51am

The overuse of capitalisation on comments is a clear sign of either insanity, blindness (you can't read what you've just written) and/or clumsyness (it's not that hard to avoidsitting on the caps lock key)

@jumpin jay, your comment is both pathetic and ignorant. Do you really have so little going on in your life that you resort to trolling the internet?

Greenpeace has, in my memory, been campaigning in Africa for decades. The individuals involved in these actions have shown a damn site more courage than you posting such irrational dribble from the safety of your computer screen.

By candleflame99 - 9 June 2011 at 8:52am

how about you lot go and thumb yourselves. i dont give a shit what you lot do, your line of work does not interest me in the slightest, but from your writing and your website you seem like a bunch of boring mugs, who are failures in real careers, as if you were successful, you would not leave your jobs to act like children and annoy people, protesting against oil will screw all of us over not just the oil companies, for example our heating bills which yesterday were speculated to go up by £200.

By terry tibbs - 9 June 2011 at 11:27am

that's an excellent news, congratulations it's a very good start

si vous voulez une nouvelle console de salon la nintendo wii u est faite pour vous grâce a cette manette incorporant un écran tactile révolutionnaire.

By mélaniecardin - 9 June 2011 at 2:42pm

Bad news for GP

"What a result! There's a judge who is not only learned but sensible and straight-talking too"

....so much so that he has today slapped an injunction on GP to stop pestering Cairn in their lawful pursuit of black gold (or gas more likely, according to GEUS, Greenland is a Gasland province..., not too many oil spills from gas I'd say). Also, the same understanding judge has imposed a €50k fine for every day that Cairn are held to ransom by GP bandits.....look on the bright side though, he has limited any resulting penalty to €1million!

By dig it man! (all up) - 9 June 2011 at 5:57pm

@ greenpeacesuckshit,

making a difference or not, greenpeace have obviously hit a nerve otherwise you wouldnt be posting on this forum to tell them how ineffective they are (at ten past ten on a thursday night).

As for "get a real job", what is your job? How do YOU propose we begin to move away from a carbon based economy?

By trollschucksh*t - 10 June 2011 at 1:08pm

LONDON (Reuters) - Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE.L - news) won a court injunction against Greenpeace on Thursday, in a move that should enable the company to continue its search for oil in the Arctic without further disruption from environmental protesters.

The British oil and gas group said the district court in Amsterdam had ruled in favour of legal action designed to deter protesters who have tried twice this year to delay drilling off the Greenland coast by boarding vessels.

"Cairn Energy notes the judgement by the District Court in Amsterdam that it has decided to grant an injunction against Stitching Greenpeace Council (Greenpeace International), requiring Greenpeace International to refrain from disrupting Cairn's lawful operations offshore Greenland," the company said in a statement.

The court also imposed a penalty of 50,000 euros (44,375 pounds) per day of up to a maximum of 1 million euros where Cairn's operations are disrupted as a result of failure to comply with the ruling, the company added.

Following BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, concern about the difficulty in tackling offshore spills has increased and environmental campaigners have made Arctic drilling a key battleground.

The track record of companies suing protest groups is a chequered one, with court action often serving to garner publicity and sympathy for the campaigners.

Cairn filed the lawsuit in the Dutch courts because two of Greenpeace's ships, the MS Esperanza and the MS Arctic Sunrise, and the Greenpeace non-profit foundation itself, are all registered in the Netherlands.

Under the lawsuit, Cairn was seeking fines of up to 2 million euros a day if Greenpeace again disrupt its activities off the coast of Greenland, where drilling must take place within a narrow summer window due to harsh weather conditions.

By Anonymous01 - 10 June 2011 at 7:41pm

here couldnt help but notice that we used a fuel powered boat to get to the rig? thats a bit awkward... couldnt be more hypocritical surely :S

By greenpeace123 - 10 June 2011 at 10:08pm

Drip...Drip...Drip

Slowly Cairns are getting the message that The residents or this planet are fed up with their efforts to turn The Artic into Profit.just to please their shareholders

Drip...Drip...Drip................Keep it going people

By The Old Scrote - 12 June 2011 at 1:05pm

At last a judge that will actually not side with money, well done that man. If Cairn keeps insisting that it's the Greenland Government that want's it kept secret, then why don't you post a letter to the Prime Minister on the Greenpeace site for us all to sign and send, then we will see who is lying. I have my doubts that such a plan exists. Keep up the good work. We are very proud of you all.

By natures_friend - 12 June 2011 at 5:19pm

you guys are fucking gay

By greenpeace123 - 19 June 2011 at 7:07pm