Greenpeace activists board a drilling rig in the Norwegian Arctic and try to block an oil rig from leaving a Dutch harbour for the Russian Arctic. Full Story: Activists from environmental group Greenpeace climbed aboard an oil drilling rig in the Norwegian Arctic on Tuesday (May 27), trying to stop Statoil's exploration plans in one of the world's northernmost prospects. Greenpeace, which regularly calls Norwegian state-owned Statoil an 'Arctic aggressor', said plans to drill in the Hoop area of the Barents Sea threaten Bear Island, an uninhabited wildlife sanctuary which is home to rare species and occasionally to polar bears. Oil firms are drilling further north in Norway than ever before as the Arctic ice retreats and recent regulation changes let firms work in areas where winter ice was common just decades ago. Greenpeace climbed the rig, owned by Transocean, in the early morning hours, and said they were prepared to stay on the rig for days. The move comes just weeks after Greenpeace tried unsuccessfully in Rotterdam to block the delivery of Russia's first oil from its Prirazlomanaya oil platform in the Arctic Pechora Sea. The platform was briefly occupied by Greenpeace activists last year before they were arrested by Russian military forces and charged with piracy, carrying a potential prison term of decades, but released under an amnesty initiated by President Vladimir Putin. Statoil called the latest move illegal and irresponsible and rejected Greenpeace's claims about safety. It said the Hoop area was an area with a known geology, low pressure and temperature and where Statoil had robust plans for the operations. The rig is currently in transit to the Hoop area where it has permission to start drilling in the Apollo prospect. However, it cannot drill into oil-bearing rock because a complaint from Greenpeace is pending. In a separate action during the night, around thirty activists from Greenpeace Netherlands tried to block a drill rig, operated by Russia's state owned energy company Gazprom, from leaving the Dutch port of Ijmuiden. According to Greenpeace, the rig will be transported to the remote Pechora sea and, in the early hours of the morning, divers attached chains to the legs of the structure. The protesters were removed after five hours and six activists remained under arrest. The group said the two protests were evidence of a growing global campaign against oil drilling in the far north. For more news and videos visit ☛ http://ntd.tv Follow us on Twitter ☛ http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision Add us on Facebook ☛ http://on.fb.me/s5KV2C

• published: 27 May 2014
• views: 10