14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago, we spoke about how Greenpeace dispatched seven of its activists in the Pechora Sea, with one goal in mind: that of keeping Russian oil company Gazprom from drilling in this part of the world.
Recent news with respect to how things are unfolding informs us that seven new Greenpeace members have made it to this region and, that together with those who were already there, they succeeded in not allowing a supply vessel to reach the oil platform.
Given the fact that said supply vessel was carrying workers, it becomes obvious that, as long as they cannot reach the oil platform, drilling operations are unlikely to commence anytime soon.
As of this morning, the official website for the Greenpeace organization read “Kumi's [the executive director for Greenpeace International] boat is now attached to anchor chain of this vessel – it's not moving anywhere so the platform workers can't get on board, effectively stopping it's preparations to drill for oil in the Arctic.”
For those of you who did not follow this topic from the start, Greenpeace's Kumi Naidoo explained why the organization he works with decided to resort to this course of actions in a letter he sent to the people of Russia.
Thus, it seems that the Russian oil industry is anything but trustworthy when it comes to preventing and controlling potential spills, meaning that any accident that might occur on one of its drilling platforms is bound to translate into severe negative consequences for the environment.
As we already discussed, Greenpeace argues that the Russian oil industry is already responsible for significant oil spills taking place on a regular basis all throughout its territory, so rather than commence new drilling operations, it would perhaps be better for this country to focus on appropriately managing the platforms it already has up and running.
For the time being, the Greenpeace activists are carefully watched by a Russian Coast Guard vessel, so there is no telling how things will eventually unfold.