Shell Sues Greenpeace for Scaling Arctic-Bound Oil Rig

The company is seeking to remove six activists from the Polar Pioneer oil drilling rig, which is travelling to the Chukchi Sea.

MOSCOW, April 8 (Sputnik) — Lawyers for the Dutch oil giant Shell have filed a lawsuit with a US federal court against Greenpeace after its activists illegally boarded an Arctic drilling rig, media reports said Wednesday.

"Greenpeace has a demonstrated pattern of conducting direct actions against Arctic oil and gas operations that violate the rights of others and create dangerous situations for their targets, law enforcement, and their own members," the lawsuit asserts, as quoted by CBC.

The company is seeking to remove the six activists from the Polar Pioneer oil drilling rig, which is travelling to the Chukchi Sea, off the Alaskan coast, aboard a heavy-lift ship called the Blue Marlin.

According to the complaint, Greenpeace's ship Esperanza has been stalking the oil platform. The vessel is now trailing the rig at a safe distance after depositing the protesters.

Shell has been absent from the Chukchi Sea for three years after its oil rig ran aground there in 2012. Last week, the US Interior Department reapproved Shell's 2008 lease, prompting a relocation of its drilling equipment to the region.

Shell will be drilling in dangerous proximity to Wrangel Island reserve off the Russian Far East coast. The United Nations has classified it as a World Heritage Site due to the island's exceptional biodiversity.