BP says it ruled out bidding for drilling license off Greenland for undisclosed reasons

BP ruled out bid for drilling off Greenland

LONDON — Oil company BP PLC said Thursday that it decided not to bid for a drilling license near Greenland but would not say whether the decision was influenced by the disastrous blowout of a deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We were aware of the licensing round,” said BP spokesman Robert Wine.

“We did get involved in it in the preliminary stages, and decided not to proceed with a bid.”

Wine declined to discuss the reasons for the decision, or to say whether it was made before or after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, but indicated that the company had not ruled out bidding for future licenses around the world.

“We would obviously be interested in any (licensing) rounds coming up,” he said.

Britain’s Cairn Energy PLC said on Tuesday that it had found gas off the west coast of Greenland, but no oil yet.

The announcement put the North Atlantic territory in the spotlight of global concerns about the risks of drilling at sea. Greenpeace’s ship Esperanza was circling the oil rig in protest over what spokesman Ben Steart called “the reckless push toward an Arctic oil run.”