The arctic would become the “new environmental battleground”, campaigners warned yesterday after BP announced plans to drill in one of the last great unspoilt wildernesses on Earth.
Environmental groups Greenpeace and WWF have vowed to confront BP’s American boss, Bob Dudley, over the agreement with the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft to explore the Kara Sea, north of Siberia.
The British energy company was branded the world’s “environmental villain number one” by Friends of the Earth yesterday in response to its move to exploit potential oil reserves in the remote waters.
Environmentalists are dismayed that BP, which unveiled the deal on Friday, has decided to set up rigs in an area of great biodiversity and treacherous weather conditions.
Mike Childs, the head of climate change at Friends of the Earth, said: “BP, a number of years ago, were positioning themselves to be the greenest of the oil companies, promising to go ‘beyond petroleum’.
This latest move positions them quite nicely as environmental villain number one, given the huge impact they had in the Gulf of Mexico as well.” – The Independent