. Medical and Hospital News .




.
ENERGY TECH
Greenpeace intercepts Russian oil rig workers
by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Aug 27, 2012


Greenpeace activists in a tiny inflatable boat on Monday intercepted a Russian ship in the remote Arctic as it was taking oil workers for the pioneering start of drilling work in pristine northern waters.

The second raid against Gazprom operations in three days comes as Russia takes the lead from other Arctic powers in exploiting what is thought to be one of the world's largest untouched deposits of oil and natural gas.

Six Greenpeace International activists occupied Gazprom's rig in the southeastern section of the Barents Sea on Friday for 15 hours before leaving after being pelted by workers with chunks of metal and hosed with ice water.

Greenpeace said its Executive Director Kumi Naidoo -- a South African who led Friday's action -- and six others raced toward the same platform at dawn Monday to intercept a passenger vessel carrying a Gazprom replacement crew.

Pictures of the sea saga showed the six then chaining their black rubber boat to a huge Russian ship that had anchored just a few hundred metres (yards) away from the Gazprom rig.

One photo showed the Russian ship's crew hosing the activists with a powerful stream of water in the frigid weather.

"The force of the water was so intense it knocked my boots off!" Greenpeace quoted one activist aboard the boat as saying.

"Felt like we were in a hurricane," the unnamed activist said. "All you can taste is salt."

Greenpeace Russia member Yevgenia Belyakova said the threat of frostbite after the water dousing had forced the crew to disengage from the anchor after seven hours and take cover in an accompanying Greenpeace speedboat.

But the team said it was still managing to keep Gazprom workers from assuming their place on board the oil platform by circling the Russian ship.

Gazprom refused to comment and addressed all questions to SevMash -- a huge state firm that makes nuclear submarines and both built the floating rig for Russia's largest energy company and chartered the new crew's ship.

A spokeswoman said SevMash was "in full control of the situation" but refused to make any further comment.

Gazprom is due next year to begin producing up to seven million tonnes of oil annually from the country's first field in the fragile Arctic.

The unit plans to drill and process oil before pumping it into tankers -- operations that have never been performed in such an inhospitable climate -- and is being watched closely by other energy giants planning to pursue similar work.

But critics warn that such operations are extremely risky because the base is sealed in ice for most of the year and has to work smoothly in temperatures that often plunge to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit).

Naidoo tweeted several hours into the raid that the global green action network was "finishing what we started" on Friday in a bid to raise global awareness of the impending Arctic operations.

Gazprom is set to be joined in the Arctic soon by the US super-major ExxonMobil and Russia's state oil holding Rosneft -- an alliance sealed last year as part of Kremlin efforts to finally tap an area it views as the future of Russia's energy wealth.

Russia is one of the world's top two oil producers and the world's top exporter of natural gas.

But its crude production has been stalling and is soon set to decline as old Soviet era wells developed in Siberia start to slowly run dry.

Related Links
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries




.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



ENERGY TECH
Chinese giant Sinopec sees net profit fall
Hong Kong (AFP) Aug 26, 2012
Chinese oil giant Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner by capacity, announced on Sunday that first-half net profit fell 41 percent year-on-year, reports said. Net profit for the six months ended June 30 was 24.5 billion yuan (3.85 billion US dollars), sharply down from 41.17 billion yuan a year earlier, Dow Jones Newswires and China's state Xinhua news agency reported. First-half revenue rose ... read more


ENERGY TECH
Quarry explosion kills nine in China: media

Green Climate Fund to hold next meeting in South Korea

Tanker-bus crash inferno kills 36 in China

China bridge collapse kills three

ENERGY TECH
Fourth Galileo satellite reaches French Guiana launch site

A GPS in Your DNA

Next Galileo satellite reaches French Guiana launch site

Raytheon completes GPS OCX iteration 1.4 Critical Design Review

ENERGY TECH
Man mistakes son for monkey, shoots him dead

More Clues About Why Chimps and Humans Are Genetically Different

More sophisticated wiring, not just bigger brain, helped humans evolve beyond chimps

Once again with feeling: Australian science tugs heart-strings

ENERGY TECH
Cambodia creates safe zones for Mekong dolphins

'Pandamania' bears take rocky French road to parenthood

Research on Wood Formation Sheds Light on Plant Biology

Losing stream in our battle to predict and prevent invasive species

ENERGY TECH
Mexico destroys 8 mn chickens amid bird flu outbreak

Clinton signs new deal to fight AIDS in South Africa

Malawi to test 250,000 people for HIV in one week

New bat virus could hold key to Hendra virus

ENERGY TECH
China's single women compete for love and riches

Tibetan monk tortured and imprisoned: rights group

Dissenters locked in China mental hospitals: rights group

China stamps down on Gu 'body-double' rumours

ENERGY TECH
EU-NATO forces free hijacked vessel

Nigeria intensifies search for 4 kidnapped foreigners: navy

Somali pirates release Taiwan fishing boat

ONR Sensor and Software Suite Hunts Down More Than 600 Suspect Boats

ENERGY TECH
Walker's World: The Ides of September

Hong Kong apartment fetches record $61 million

EU ponders how to hold off on Greek pleas

China manufacturing hits nine-month low: HSBC


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement