Shell has warned it could miss a window to drill for oil in the Arctic this summer, if six Greenpeace activists occupying a rig under contract to the company are not removed, court filings by the oil company reveal.
Failure to act against the climbers who boarded the Polar Pioneer rig 750 miles north of Hawaii on Monday would result in “irreparable harm” and “monetary damages”, the document seen by the Guardian shows.
The Greenpeace activists, from the US, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden and Austria, used inflatable boats and climbing gear on Monday to board the rig where they still remain and have unfurled banners in protest at the planned drilling in the polar region.
Shell filed papers with an Alaskan court on Tuesday seeking an injunction for the removal of the activists and damages, with a spokeswoman saying it condemned the “illegal activity” of the environmental group.
A leaked version of the Shell complaint is candid about the risks the campaigners pose to its Arctic drilling plans, which were announced in January after the company shelved drilling in 2014. The company has already spent $1bn (£0.7bn) preparing for the 2015 drilling.
“Left unsanctioned, Greenpeace USA’s illegal and tortious actions will, as Greenpeace USA intends, delay and/or prevent Shell from transporting vessels, facilities, supplies, and personnel to the Chukchi Sea, and from conducting federally permitted exploration drilling activities on Shell-owned United States OCS oil and gas leases, during the brief 2015 open water season in the Arctic Ocean.”
The Polar Pioneer rig left Malaysia in early 2015 and is being carried aboard the Blue Marlin vessel to Washington, ahead of a final transfer to Alaska’s Chukchi Sea in May or June. The open water season that Shell considers safe for drilling in the region, before sea ice poses a risk, typically runs from July to October. In 2013, drilling plans were stopped when a Shell rig ran aground off the Alaska coast.
“Given the extent of Shell’s investment and the short summer drilling window, each and every day is of vital importance to Shell in its ability to successfully complete the 2015 drilling program,” the complaint said.
Shell argued that the court has jurisdiction to consider the case, but Greenpeace claimed that because the boarding of the rig happened in international waters on a Dutch-flagged vessel, the Blue Marlin, it is beyond the court’s jurisdiction.
Aliyah Field, one of the activists occupying the rig, said: “I’m not a lawyer, but I know I haven’t been served with any paper or asked to appear in court. I’m hanging on a Marshall Islands-flagged rig on board a Dutch-flagged ship, I am not sure why Shell believes the Alaska District Court has anything to do with it. I’ll wait and see what happens and talk to a lawyer if I need to. Until I receive any legal papers, I’m going nowhere.”
The activists have been giving media interviews via satellite phone from the rig, including one with Canadian author Naomi Klein, as well as posting YouTube videos about their freezing conditions and what one of them calls Shell’s “crazy, crazy plan” to drill for oil in the Arctic.
Shell’s finance director, Simon Henry, said previously: “It’s often forgotten it’s not that difficult to drill [in the Arctic], it’s the logistics around it. Yes there is a challenge and many of the reputational challenges are not winnable because they are with people who are never going to take a view that this is possible or desirable. It’s up to us to show it can be done successfully.”
A decision by the court is expected around midnight on Friday UK time (3.30pm Alaska time).
