Greenpeace Greets First Load of Arctic Oil

Forty-four Greenpeace activists were arrested in Rotterdam as Russian ice tanker Mikhail Ulyanov arrived in the port carrying the first load of crude from Russia's Arctic. On April 18th, Gazprom loaded the tanker with the first cargo of oil from the Prirazlomnoye field in the Pechora Sea, the first hydrocarbon development on the Russian Arctic shelf [photo: Gazprom Neft]. President Putin himself gave the order to start loading Sovkomflot's specially designed ice-class tanker, underlining the importance of Arctic resource development to Russian government policy. Later, during a meeting of the Russian Security Council he ordered that private companies be allowed to establish private armed security forces to protect infrastructure and ships*. The measure is seen as a response to the Greenpeace demonstration last September in which 28 activists were arrested by Russian special forces who boarded their ship in international waters. They were held for two months on charges of piracy and "hooliganism" by Russian authorities in Murmansk. Their ship, Arctic Sunrise, is still detained in Murmansk. At the meeting President Putin said the Arctic "is a concentration of practically all aspects of national security". Russia has gained a lead over exploitation of the melting Arctic since the leading western petroleum company, Shell, cancelled plans to continue its exploration program this year after an accident caused its advanced Arctic drilling platform to ground near Kodiak Island. Putin also announced plans to "revive the Northern Sea route" by building a new Arctic seaport, Sabetta, and an LPG facility. He finally mentioned environmental protection of the fragile Arctic is an essential condition of operations, and that Prirazlomnaya has "zero waste", proving Russian technology is capable of minimizing environmental risks. The Prirazlomnaya platform is just 30 miles from a nature reserve.

Greenpeace activists are not convinced by Russian claims of technical infallibility. On May 1, after the Ulyanov entered Rotterdam harbor, 20 activists positioned their rubber inflatables between the dock and the tanker to prevent offloading the crude. [photo: Neugebauer/Greenpeace] Earlier, protestors painted "no Arctic oil" in large white letters on the tanker's hull. Dutch security forceably boarded the Rainbow Warrior and arrested demonstrators including a few that had also participated in the "Arctic Thirty" protest. Gazprom management says their Arctic platform is redundantly designed with a reinforced caisson and a wet method of storage that eliminates the possibility of explosions. The cassion can hold 94,000 tons of crude. Greenpeace says that spills are not the only concern; continued human reliance on fossil fuels made possible by new exploitation will make global climate change more intense.

*President Putin is taking threats, regardless of the source, against oil production facilities seriously. Dimitry Yarosh, a Ukrainian far-right leader and presidential candidate threatened to blow up pipelines from Russia into Europe via Ukraine. Putin responded by placing Yarosh on an international terrorist list. He told his Security Council, "Nothing can be treated as trivia here." Putin has ordered the restoration of several airfield above the Arctic Circle and a military base on Novosibirsk.