NUUK, Greenland, May 25 (UPI) -- Danish soldiers are said to have boarded an oil rig off the coast of Greenland to prevent Greenpeace activists from interfering with operations.
"Along with a second Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, we are now in a rather tense standoff with Danish navy commandos protecting the oil drilling operation," wrote Greenpeace's Nick Young from on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise.
Greenpeace published articles released under a Freedom of Information Act that suggests London sees an oil spill in the arctic waters as difficult to address.
Scottish energy company Cairn is planning to drill several new wells off the coast of Greenland. The energy company could drill at water depths deeper than the Gulf of Mexico well that failed last year and led to one of the worst oil disasters in the history of the industry.
Cairn said its four-well campaign for 2011 targets various structures in Greenland that have a mean prospective resource potential of 3.2 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Four activists with Greenpeace were arrested by Greenland police in September after severe winds and 18-foot waves led authorities to launch a rescue attempt at a Cairn oil rig in arctic waters.
