Activists Waylay Massive New Oil Rig

Posted on Apr 22, 2011

Greenpeace / Markel Redondo

Activists waging a “new cold war” against Arctic deep water oil drilling intercepted and occupied a massive new oil rig en route from Turkey to Greenland before bad weather forced them to retreat. —JCL

Salon.com:

Greenpeace activists climbed aboard a huge oil rig off Istanbul on Friday in a bid to prevent it from reaching Greenland to begin deep-water drilling in the Arctic, but later abandoned their protest because of bad weather.

The environmental group said eleven activists, some in rock-climbing gear, used speedboats to intercept and then climb atop the Leiv Eiriksson at dawn after it had left a port in Istanbul. They climbed the rig’s derrick, unfurling a banner that read: “Stop Arctic destruction” and “Go Beyond Oil, Choose Clean Energy.”

The platform, one of the world’s largest, did not stop and continued on its course to Greenland’s Baffin Bay, crossing through the Dardanelles strait and heading toward Greek waters, said Deniz Sozudogru, a Greenpeace spokeswoman for the Mediterranean region.

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