Greenpeace activists who scaled oil rig off Greenland questioned

Jun 5, 2011, 13:53 GMT

Nuuk, Greenland/Stockholm - Greenland police Sunday resumed questioning of 18 members of Greenpeace, arrested the day before after boarding an exploratory oil rig off western Greenland.

Greenpeace has in the past week staged two protests against test drilling in environmentally sensitive Arctic waters.

The 18 activists were in police custody in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, Greenland deputy police chief Morten Nielsen told the German Press Agency dpa.

'Due to the number of arrests made yesterday (Saturday) we have not been able to finish questioning all of them,' Nielsen said.

After questioning, police would submit the information to the Danish Immigration Authority for a possible expulsion order, he said.

The 18 face charges of trespassing and violating a safety zone around the rig. In addition to expulsion, they could be fined.

Grenpeace said the protest aimed at getting rig operator, Scotland-based Cairn Energy, to present contingency plans in case of an oil spill.

Two other Greenpeace activists who were arrested early Thursday after they last Sunday breached an exclusion zone around the Leiv Eiriksson rig, and secured themselves in a survival capsule on the rig, were to remain in custody pending their expulsion, likely on Monday, Nielsen said.

Preliminary investigations suggested activists were nationals of the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain and Italy, he said.

Test drilling began Friday off Greenland's west coast. The rig was located some 240 kilometres from the coast, and Greenpeace vessels were positioned in Greenland's economic zone where the police have no jurisdiction, he said.

Authorities in Greenland have previously criticized the Greenpeace action, saying Greenland, which in 2009 gained more autonomy from Denmark, had a right to exploit its natural resources for the benefit of its population,

The drilling was conducted under strict environmental and safety requirements, the Greenland authorities said.

Several energy groups hope to be able to tap in to gas and oil finds believed to be off Greenland.

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