Greenpeace Ship to Confront Gazprom Tanker
Dutch coastguard flies over @gp_warrior which is on its way to the Russian tanker carrying world's first Arctic oil pic.twitter.com/vCX6YupHvB
— Arctic Sunrise (@gp_sunrise) April 28, 2014Greenpeace International is en route to protest a tanker bringing the first oil produced at a new Russian offshore platform in the Arctic Circle to Rotterdam.
The environmental group said it has sent the Rainbow Warrior III to meet the Mikhail Ulyanov, a tanker chartered by Russia’s state-controlled oil company, Gazprom OAO.
Greenpeace has also criticized the French oil company Total SA for purchasing the oil, saying it was being hypocritical after ruling out drilling in the Arctic in 2012 due to fears of spills.
Greenpeace spokesman Ben Ayliffe said: “The tanker is currently heading south into the North Sea as it makes for Rotterdam, so we expect the two ships to meet at some stage in the coming days.”
Greenpeace has aggressively opposed the production of oil in the Arctic Circle, warning of the danger of oil spills and of the worsening global warming caused by using fossil fuels. In a statement Sunday, Greenpeace added a geopolitical reason, saying buying the oil “increases our dependence on Russian energy firms and only serves to strengthen President Putin’s hand in the geopolitical game he’s playing.”