Greenpeace activists near a Shell platform en route to the North Sea, Monday February 6, 2023 in the English Channel (AFP / Lou BENOIST)
“Stop drilling, start paying”: two Greenpeace activists boarded a ship carrying a Shell platform on Monday to expand an oil and gas field in Scotland, joining four members of the NGO who found there since January 31, noted AFP journalists.
Despite the presence of an escort boat, the two activists managed to hold on to ropes to climb onto the huge building, without any agent on board being able to prevent them.
“We, Greenpeace and several representatives of countries in the south which are already impacted by climate change, are here to raise awareness of the utter madness of Shell and other oil companies which continue to invest in new exploration for fuels. fossils in the middle of the climate crisis,” Ansgar Kiene, head of Greenpeace’s European action campaign, told AFP aboard one of the boats accompanying the operation.
Two activists from the environmental defense association boarded the White Marlin, a ship carrying a 34,000-tonne oil and gas platform on behalf of Shell, around 8:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) on Monday.
Greenpeace activists on a Shell platform en route to the North Sea, Monday February 6, 2023 in the English Channel (AFP / Lou BENOIST)
Four members of the NGO invested this ship last week and are still there despite a restraining order obtained by Shell, confirmed Greenpeace.
“We want to strengthen the struggle with more activists and more voices,” Kiene said, adding that the action was “peaceful” and that the activists had “no intention of interfering with the route.” of the ship.
Greenpeace plans to camp on the platform as far as Norway, he said.
“Shell will not silence us. The whole world must know that Shell plans to destroy the planet, by worsening the climate crisis and without paying a penny to repair the carnage”, testified the German Silja Zimmermann, one of the two activists mounted on the White Marlin.
The platform, now occupied by six members of Greenpeace, should allow Shell to drill eight new wells in the Penguins gas and oil field in the North Sea.
Greenpeace activists head towards an oil platform in the North Sea on February 6, 2023 (AFP / Lou BENOIST)
According to the NGO, “the consumption of the oil and gas contained in these wells would generate 45 million tonnes of CO2. This is more than all of Norway’s annual emissions”.
The British-Dutch giant, which announced $42.3 billion in profits in 2022, last week denounced an action “which raises real concerns about safety”.
© 2023 AFP
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