Greenpeace activists board Shell rig to protest Arctic drilling
Oil giant Shell is taking the environmental campaign group Greenpeace to court after six activists boarded an oil rig to protest against Arctic drilling
Oil giant Shell is taking the environmental campaign group Greenpeace to court after six activists boarded an oil rig to protest against Arctic drilling.
The demonstration follows the U.S. government giving approval to Shell’s drilling lease for the Chukchi Sea in the Alaskan Arctic.
Six Greenpeace activists boarded the Polar Pioneer on Monday and the ship is carrying a 400-foot-tall rig intended for drilling for oil in the Arctic.
Johno Smith, one of the activists to board the vessel, said: “We’re here to highlight that in less than 100 days Shell is going to the Arctic to drill for oil. This pristine environment needs protecting for future generations and all life that will come to call it home. But instead Shell’s actions are exploiting the melting ice to increase a manmade disaster. Climate change is real and already inflicting pain and suffering on my brothers and sisters in the Pacific.”
Shell has filed a legal complaint seeking an injunction against the protesters.
The Anglo-Dutch company said in a statement that boarding a moving vessel on the high seas was “extremely dangerous” and “far from peaceful”.
In response to the lawsuit, Annie Leonard, Greenpeace USA executive director, said: “This injunction is Shell’s latest attempt to keep people from standing up for the Arctic. Shell thinks it can do whatever it wants, but there’s one thing the company still clearly fears – ordinary people standing up to save the Arctic. Shell wants activist off its rig. We want Shell out of the Arctic.”
The demonstration comes as Shell agrees a deal to buy oil and gas exploration firm BG Group for £47 billion.
The vessel, en route from Malaysia to the Port of Seattle, was boarded about 750 miles northwest of Hawaii.
Shell filed the lawsuit in federal court about 24 hours after the incident started and is hoping to kick the activists off of the rig.
In a statement Shell said: “These acts are far from peaceful demonstration. Boarding a moving vessel on the high seas is extremely dangerous and jeopardizes the safety of all concerned, including both the people working aboard and the protestors themselves.”
The protesters followed the rig’s trans-Pacific journey on a Greenpeace ship named the Esperanza and used inflatable boats and climbing gear to approach the vessel and scale the rig.
It is one of two rigs bound for the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, an area that Shell is looking to develop for offshore drilling.
The protest comes just a week after the U.S. government reaffirmed Shell’s 2008 drilling lease in the Chukchi Sea, giving the go ahead for the company to begin preparations for drilling in the Arctic.
Shell has reportedly spent around US$4 billion in its effort to drill in the region, but hasn’t had permission since 2012, when a key piece of safety equipment used in cleaning up oil spills failed.
Environmentalists and some officials are concerned that, given the Arctic’s extreme weather, an oil spill would be highly likely.
An Environmental Impact Report released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) found that, under the current plan for drilling in the Chukchi Sea, there is a 75 per cent chance of a major oil spill in the Arctic.
