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Greenland downplays offshore concerns
Gary Park For Petroleum News
Canada has effectively been told to tend to its own knitting as Greenland prepares for the biggest offshore exploration push in its history.
Both the self-rule government and the World Wildlife Fund have told the Canadian government there is no reason to fear that a drilling accident could lead to a disaster on the scale of that in the Gulf of Mexico.
Canada’s Environment Minister Jim Prentice said he plans a “robust discussion” with Greenland officials at a June 9 meeting about licenses Greenland has issued within its territorial waters of Davis Strait, which is shared with Canada, to determine “when drilling would happen, under what conditions and with what contingency plans.”
Greenland calls regulations tough Greenland officials say exploration wells planned for this summer will be drilled under some of the toughest regulations in the world — a claim endorsed by Craig Stewart, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund who said the rules “are far more onerous than what we have in Canada.”
Mininnguaq Kleist, head of foreign affairs for Greenland, said his government is “following and monitoring what is going on in the Gulf of Mexico and is very concerned about this.
“The way we will try to prevent such a thing from happening in our area — if we find oil — is to have the standards of the Nordic countries, where you have very high standards on the environment and the technology used,” he said.
He said Greenland’s regulations are based on those applied in Norway, with the major emphasis on using the “best available technology and the highest international standards.”
Scottish-based Cairn Energy has earmarked $400 million to drill four wells this year west of Greenland’s Disko Island and more activity is in the works from exploration licenses sold along almost the entire maritime border with Canada.
Six failed attempts Over the past 30 years there have been six failed attempts to strike oil, but interest is growing as global warming extends the Arctic drilling season.
A spokesman for Cairn said his company needs stamina to test its eight licenses, given that the blocks are about 3,800 square miles each.
A Greenpeace spokesman, while acknowledging the close ties between oil exploration and Greenland’s hopes for independence, noted the 2010 licensing round is “very far up north … and very far away from any form of support should things go wrong.”
The winners of the 14 blocks on offer over a 57,000 square miles area in Baffin Bay will be announced in August. Bidders include Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil.
Holders of 13 licenses issued since 2002 are Cairn, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Encana, Husky Energy, Dong Energy, PA Resources and state-owned Nunaoil.
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