Greenpeace has announced that it has been blocked by a Danish warship in its efforts to sail a protest boat to an oil drilling platform off the coast of Greenland. The environmental group’s ship, Esperanza, was apparently halted outside a 500-metre exclusion zone around the Cairn Energy rig, 200km from Aasiaat, on Greenland’s west coast. In an email statement issued on Monday, Greenpeace said Denmark, which holds sovereignty over Greenland, had sent a ship to confront their vessel. Read the full story

A summit of Inuit leaders focussing on resource development in the Arctic is urgently needed, according to the conclusions of the 11th Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) conference in Greenland. The meeting wrapped up on Friday in Nuuk after 65 Inuit delegates spent five days in Greenland’s capital discussing issues of mutual concern. Subjects on the table included offshore gas and oil drilling and uranium development. Read the full story

Cairn Energy is to begin drilling in Baffin Bay after being given the green light for tests from Greenland’s government. According to KNR, company ships, the Nordic and Vidar Viking, have already arrived on the scene and drilling is scheduled to start shortly. Read the full story

Drillers drilling for hot water on the northern Icelandic island of Grimsey (the only part of Iceland to cross the Arctic Circle) have now reached a depth of 460 metres and are now finding water at 55 degrees centigrade.

Engineers on the project are happy with progress, but still hope to hit a high pressure area of much hotter subterranean water, visir.is reports.

The drilling began on Grimsey last autumn, and engineer Fridfinnur K. Danielsson believes that the work is going well to date; especially as hot water drilling has never previously been undertaken on Grimsey.

An ongoing debate between local conservationists and the oil industry could become moot if UNESCO adds the scenic Lofoten islands to its list of World Heritage sites. Erik Solheim, Norway’s cabinet minister for environmental issues, was greeted with overwhelming opposition to plans for oil exploration and drilling in the area when he visited Lofoten recently.

A coalition of local mayors emphatically told Solheim that they were against any offshore drilling. Local environmental activists enthusiastically backed this position. Solheim himself was sceptical that the drilling would go through, but made it clear that the government has not made a formal decision yet.

Solheim added that if UNESCO were to add Lofoten to its list, any prospects of future oil drilling would be ruled out. Fishermen are concerned that oil exploration tests would drive the fish population away. Kjell Olav Halland from the Coastal Fishermen’s Union wants the Norwegian government to conduct more research into the effects of oil drilling on fisheries.

Oil companies are using experts to support their own position, and Halland would like to see the government put in an equal effort to provide a fair, objective evaluation. He made the point that the oil industry will only be in business for a few decades, but fishing in the Lofoten islands has been a local tradition for more than 1,000 years.