Maersk to stop warning platforms of inspections
Flight information was used tip oil rigs about environmental inspections Shipping and oil conglomerate Maersk has announced it will stop using Air Force flight plans to warn its North Sea oil rigs about possible environmental reconnaissance fly-overs. The announcement comes...
Shipping and oil conglomerate Maersk has announced it will stop using Air Force flight plans to warn its North Sea oil rigs about possible environmental reconnaissance fly-overs.
The announcement comes after Politiken newspaper reported on Saturday that the oil rigs receive routine warnings. They messages, sent by e-mail, enable the staff on the rigs to camouflage or stop potentially illegal releases before they are detected by the authorities.
Politiken said it obtained the information from a series of internal Maersk e-mails and interviews with anonymous Maersk staff.
Staff at Maersk’s helicopter department at Esbjerg Airport reportedly sent out e-mail alerting the company’s platforms to the flights. Before the reconnaissance airplanes take off, the Air Force sends a flight plan to a central computer in Belgium, which then forwards the data to Esbjerg Airport.
Maersk confirmed that flight information was been sent out to the oil rigs, but denied doing so in order to trick the environmental control.
“I see it as radar control and speed traps on the motorways,” said Jakob Thomasen, managing director at Maersk Oil and Gas. “It’s a signal of control, and then you just sharpen your attention. That’s how we view it.”