Oil firm files lawsuit against Arctic protesters

LONDON (Reuters) - UK-based Cairn Energy has filed a legal action in the Netherlands, seeking damages of up to $2 million a day if Greenpeace protesters again disrupt the explorer's drilling plans offshore Greenland.

A Cairn spokesman said on Thursday the action was intended as a deterrent after Greenpeace ended a four-day protest which involved protesters hanging suspended from a drilling rig in a plastic pod.

Last year, Greenpeace activists also launched similar action against a Cairn rig offshore Greenland.

Cairn is leading a charge into offshore Greenland, which explorers believe could hold billions of barrels of oil. Exxon Mobil, Husky Energy and others also plan to drill there.

Earlier on Thursday, the Danish navy removed the Greenpeace protesters from the semi-submersible drilling vessel, the Leiv Eiriksson, owned by Ocean Rig.

Greenpeace said in a web posting that it had delayed drilling, which must occur within a narrow window due to harsh weather in the Arctic region, but Cairn denied this.

A Cairn spokesman said there had been "no impact on schedule."

Greenpeace said that Cairn had argued in its court papers that the protest could cost it $4 million a day but the Cairn spokesman said he was unable to confirm this.

Following BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, concern about the difficulty in tackling offshore spills has increased and environmental campaigners have made Arctic drilling a key battleground.

The track record of companies suing protest groups is a chequered one, with court action often serving to garner publicity and sympathy for the campaigners.

Cairn's shares closed down 2.8 percent lagging a 2.0 percent drop in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index.

(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Jane Merriman and Erica Billingham)

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