The Greenlandic self-ruled government's environmental adviser, the National Centre for Environment and Energy at the University of Aarhus/DCE, are warning that oil exploration in the fragile Arctic environment could have disastrous consequences.
According to ingenøren.dk, DCE has published the first strategic environmental assessment of future oil and gas activities in the Greenlandic part of the Labrador Sea and the southeastern Davis Strait.
The most serious potential accidents associated with oil activities are major oil spills triggered by a blowout, an accident during storage or while transporting the oil.
Although those accidents are fairly rarely occuring today, the risks of such a disaster in the sensitive environment are substantial, and increased due to the lack of knowledge surrounding Greenland's environmental characteristics, from iceberg masses and dimensions to the mapping of Greenland's coast, the last Danish study of which was conducted in the late 1970s.
As icebergs are frequent in the area undergoing prospecting, the absence of systematic measurements and surveying is a "serious deficiency."
According to ingenøren.dk, "gaps in knowledge should be filled before more licences are created in the area.
"Until that has been done, the environmental assessment to be regarded as preliminary."
So far, the Greenland Mineral Resources Directorate has only licensed exploration for hydrocarbons.
Source: ingenøren.dk
Image Source: Maritime Denmark
