A DECISION by a British oil company to start drilling wells in “iceberg alley” off Greenland has been described as “completely irresponsible” by environmental groups in the light of BP's problems in the Gulf of Mexico.

Cairn Energy said it had begun the first of four exploration wells on the Alpha prospect in Arctic waters of up to 500 metres having been given permission from the Greenland government.

Greenpeace said the move was wrong, not least because Cairn was a relatively small company with no harsh-conditions drilling experience that had made its name discovering oil onshore in India.

“We think it is completely irresponsible for Cairn to proceed with these operations when the US, Canada and Norway have imposed tough new restrictions on deepwater drilling until lessons can be learned about what exactly went wrong in the Gulf,” said Mads Flarup Christensen, secretary general of Greenpeace Nordic.

“Drilling in these kinds of waters is very sad. It shows the way the oil industry is being forced into the last frontiers by trying to exploit tar sands and deep water.”

Greenpeace has written to Kuupik Kleist, the Greenland prime minister, urging him to call a halt to the Cairn drilling programme but admits there is little sign of its request being granted. The green group believes the country is overlooking the risks because it is desperate to find new income sources, having recently won political independence from Denmark.

The wildlife charity WWF is also concerned about the Arctic drilling. “The Gulf of Mexico is the world's centre of drilling technology with thousands of engineers and immense resources in terms of boats, planes, control equipment and manufacturing facilities — and even here it is proving immensely difficult to handle the tragic events of the Gulf of Mexico blowout,” said Dan Barlow, its head of policy.

“It is time for countries to recognise that offshore drilling with current technology and response capability poses unacceptable risks in the Arctic, where conditions are far more extreme. The consequences of such an event in the cold climate would lead to a persistence of ecological damage over many decades.”

Cairn management recently visited the Greenland capital of Nuuk to reassure the public that it would stick to the highest possible safety standards in line with an agreement signed with the government. “Security has always been the most important in everything we do and so we want it to continue,” said commercial director Simon Thomson.

— The Guardian, London