Some 3,000 people marched Saturday in Montreal to call for a end in Quebec to a technique known as "fracking" to get at natural gas reserves which faces strong opposition from environmental groups.

The demonstrators marched through downtown Montreal, chanting slogans against drilling.

"Quebec should take a turn for renewable energy, especially new energy sources which are green," said Amir Khadir, a member of the provincial assembly who came on bicycle to join the protest.

The Quebec Association to Combat Air Pollution, which organized the protest, said a decision by Quebec authorities to study the issue was insufficient, because eight of the 11 members of a study panel have ties to the oil and gas industries.

Hydraulic fracturing involves forcing chemicals deep into a well to dislodge natural gas from shale thousands of feet below the surface.

Backers say the vast reserves in North America could ease dependence on imported energy. However, some argue that the method risks contaminating underground water sources.

In Quebec, large sources of shale gas are believed to be located in the St. Lawrence valley, and Quebec authorities are studying the potential environmental impact of drilling in the area.

earlier related report
Greenpeace chief arrested after scaling Arctic oil rig
Copenhagen (AFP) June 17, 2011 - Two Greenpeace activists, including the head of the environmental group, were arrested Friday after scaling an oil rig off Greenland to demand a halt to drilling in the Arctic, police said.

"We were able to arrest the two Greenpeace activists who entered the platform at 8:06 am (0806 GMT)," Greenland's deputy police chief Morten Nielsen told AFP, confirming that one of the activists was the international head of Greenpeace, Kumi Naidoo.

"They have been charged with trespassing and violating the home-rule order in regards to safety zones," he said, adding that the two had been transported to Greenland'S capital Nuuk and were being arraigned before a judge to determine if they could be held in custody until they can be expelled.

Greenpeace had announced earlier Friday it expected Naidoo would be arrested after he "entered an exclusion zone to scale a controversial Arctic oil rig."

Naidoo had demanded "that the rig's master orders an immediate halt to drilling, and (requested) a copy of the rig's missing oil spill response plan," the group said in a statement.

During the operation, according to Greenpeace, Naidoo handed over an appeal carrying 50,000 signatures from supporters around the world to demand that the platform's operator, Scottish company Cairn Energy "explain exactly how it would deal with a BP-style deep water blow-out in the Arctic."

The reference is to the April 2010 explosion on a BP-leased rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and caused millions of barrels of oil to spew into the sea.

"Wherever it is active, Cairn seeks to operate in a safe and prudent manner," the company meanwhile insisted in a statement Friday, adding that its "operations were not impacted" by the Greenpeace operation.

The latest Greenpeace action came a week after Cairn obtained an injunction against the group from a Dutch court, imposing fines of 50,000 euros (71,400 dollars) a day for breaches of a so-called exclusion zone around the rig, which lies some 180 kilometres (110 miles) off the western coast of Greenland.

The injunction was granted after 20 Greenpeace activists were arrested at the beginning of the month as they attempted to disrupt prospecting at the 53,000-tonne platform.

In August 2010, a similar action by four Greenpeace militants disrupted drilling by Cairn off Greenland for 40 hours, before bad weather forced them to call off the protest.

Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, is looking to oil prospecting as a way to establish its economic independence.

The Arctic holds 90 billion barrels of oil and 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas, according to US geological experts.

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