Arctic Drilling Platform News

According to Greenpeace, Shell's CFO Simon Henry said that the company is putting the building blocks in place to drill in Alaskan Arctic as early as next year. "Shell's Arctic bravado is a desperate attempt to reassure its investors, but the facts tell a different story. Brushing off the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars and casually scrapping a drilling platform are not the actions of a company in control of its operations. "In 2012 Shell proved that it is completely unfit to drill in the remote Arctic, a place of unrivaled beauty where any spill would be an environmental disaster.

The Russian state prosecutor laid charges of piracy against a Greenpeace activist who protested against oil drilling in the Arctic. A freelance videographer has also been charged with piracy, which carries a maximum 15 year jail sentence. It is an extreme and disproportionate charge. Charges are expected to be brought against other Greenpeace campaigners over the coming hours and days. “A charge of piracy is being laid against men and women whose only crime is to be possessed of a conscience. This is an outrage and represents nothing less than an assault on the very principle of peaceful protest. Any claim that these activists are pirates is as absurd as it is abominable. It is utterly irrational, it is designed to intimidate and silence us, but we will not be cowed.

Greenpeace say that Russian authorities are holding 30 of their activists on board the protester's vessel 'Arctic Sunrise' after their attempt to board a Gazprom drilling rig in the Pechora Sea. [The detention] comes after officials from the Russian security service FSB, armed with guns and knives, abruptly stormed the ship using a helicopter and ropes. Once on the ship, they rounded up our activists and ordered them into the mess. It was a swift and aggressive follow-up to the…