Judge tells Cairn to issue spill response plan

 

Cairn Energy should publish details of how it would respond to a Gulf of Mexico-style oil spill in the Arctic, a judge said yesterday.

The Scottish oil explorer (up 4.4p to 429.6p) was in an Amsterdam court seeking an injunction to prevent Greenpeace activists from disrupting its drilling.

The court battle came after 18 protesters forced a 12-hour shutdown of one of Cairn's rigs at the weekend, before being removed by Greenland police, backed by the Danish navy.

But the judge said he needed more time to consider the injunction and also told Cairn that it should publish its secret oil spill response plan.

Environmentalists say that a clean up like the one launched in response to BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill would be nigh-on impossible in the icy Arctic waters.