Arctic-Sunrise

A BP drilling rig heading to an oilfield in the British North Sea has been forced to turn away twice over the past two days as a Greenpeace vessel protesting climate change tries to hamper its progress. The high-sea chase is the latest step in Greenpeace's nine-day effort to stop the 40,000 tonne Paul Loyd JNR rig from reaching the Vorlich oilfield to start its drilling campaign. The vessel left Cromarty Firth, north of Inverness, Scotland on Friday after police twice removed activists who had climbed and spent several days on one of the rig's legs. But it was forced to turn away twice from its destination over the past 48 hours as Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise vessel followed it, the activist group said. The Paul Loyd JNR is currently heading west towards Peterhead and away from the Vorlich field, according to Greenpeace and ship tracking websites.

Norwegian authorities have detained Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise after a protest at a Statoil contracted drilling rig at Norway’s northernmost oil field in the Barents Sea, the environmental group said in a statement. Greenpeace said the vessel and 35 activists were unlawfully detained after entering the exclusion zone of Statoil’s Korpfjell well, halting drilling operations for the Songa Enabler semi-submersible. The ship, activists and crew members were all arrested by the Norwegian Coast Guard, the group said. Greenpeace said it hopes the protest will send a message to the Norwegian government to stop oil drilling in the Arctic. http://gcaptain.com/norway-arrests-greenpeace-ship-and-35-activists-during-protest-at-arctic-oil-well/

The Greenpeace protest ship, the 624-dwt ARCTIC SUNRISE has again set sail, this time from Tromso, Norway to protest oil drilling in Norwegian water having been released from a Russian jail for interfering with drilling operations. "We have no plans to enter the Russian waters. It is on the Norwegian side where the most controversial drilling is planned to take place, and Norway that is the most aggressive Arctic oil player in practical terms," said Truls Gulowsen, head of Greenpeace Norway on his way to do what landed him and his crew in jail in Murmansk. This new venture comes days after the environmental protest group scored a major propaganda victory when an international tribunal in Vienna ordered Russia to pay EUR5 million (US$5.7 million) in damages after it arrested the ship in 2013 for a year and imprisoned its crew for two months.