A Russian tanker docked Thursday in Rotterdam with the first shipment of oil drawn from a rig in the Arctic despite an attempted blockade by environmental activists, dpa reported. Two ships belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace had blocked the dock while one group of protesters painted "No Arctic Oil" on the hull of the tanker and others put themselves between the quay wall and the tanker to stop it from mooring. The vessels Rainbow Warrior and Esperanza were towed away, and Dutch police arrested 30 protesters, allowing the Mikhail Ulyanov, which was carrying 550,000 barrels of oil, to dock. The Rainbow Warrior's captain was among those arrested, Greenpeace said. The oil came from the Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the remote Pechora Sea. It belongs to the Russian state energy company Gazprom. The Arctic ecosystem is regarded as sensitive, and vast areas have been declared protected zones. Greenpeace accuses Gazprom of disregarding safety standards on a large scale, but Moscow has denied this. -- SPA 00:20 LOCAL TIME 21:20 GMT تغريد
