Oil

Going swimming to stop the drilling

Posted by jamess — 27 September 2010 at 10:11am - Comments

Wow. It’s still sinking in. It's not every day you get to jump in front of a moving ship and actually make it stop.

Last night – about fifteen minutes before I was turning in – I heard that Chevron's drill ship, the one that we'd been hanging off for over 100 hours, had started up its engines and was heading towards its deepwater drill site north of Shetland.

Chevron had earlier hit us with a legal injunction, which said that if we got on the ship – with the pod or anything else – we'd face massive daily fines that we couldn't justify using our supporters' money to pay.

But we still had to do something. So last night as news came in that the Stena Carron was moving, Ben – our lead campaigner on board – tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was still up for going tomorrow.

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, go beyond oil, oil, oil spill, shetland

Our swimmers halt the Stena Carron again

Posted by jossc — 26 September 2010 at 3:32pm - Comments

We may have been forced by legal action to end our 100-hour occupation of Chevron's giant drill ship, Stena Carron, yesterday - but that doesn't mean we've given up trying to stop its journey towards a deep water drilling site off Scotland.

Just hours after we removed our survival pod from the ship's anchor chain, it left for a site in the Lagavulin oil field where it will drill an exploratory well in 500 metres of water.

So this afternoon we sent out an actions team in inflatable speedboats to track Stena Carron, now in open seas 100 miles north of Shetland. At 1.30pm they managed to put four swimmers in the drill ship's path, forcing it to stop.

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, go beyond oil, oil, oil spill, shetland

The pod may be down, but we're not out.

Posted by jamess — 25 September 2010 at 6:57pm - Comments

After 100 incredible hours on Chevron’s anchor chain our occupation is over. The pod has come down. But we’re not leaving Shetland, yet.

I just got back from watching Timo and Naz lower the half-tonne pod, where with help from Victor in the safety boat, they used some more of their rigging magic to safely lower the yellow bubble into the rough seas. From there it was towed, bobbing and rocking, back to its home on the deck of the Esperanza.

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, go beyond oil, oil, oil spill, shetland

Chevron brings out the legal guns to bring down the pod

Posted by jamie — 24 September 2010 at 6:22pm - Comments

As Leila explains, Chevron has obtained a court order to end our action on its drilling ship the Stena Carron and bring the pod down. Apologies for the audio, but the wind was picking up some.

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, go beyond oil, oil, stena carron

UK plans to scupper drilling moratorium exposed on Twitter

Posted by jamess — 24 September 2010 at 10:53am - Comments

Ok Twitter friends, it’s time to take action.

While Timo and Naz are out there hanging off Chevron's rig in the pod, stopping deepwater drilling, our politicians are out in Norway wrecking regional plans for a moratorium.

Yesterday we put out a message on Twitter, as soon as we heard from our German colleagues what was happening at the OSPAR conference:

"Twitter

Next thing that happens is Richard Benyon, the Under-Secretary for the Environment tweeted this:

Twitter message 1

They accosted you Mr Benyon because you're scuppering an important initiative to stop deepwater drilling!

Article tagged as: climate change, go beyond oil, moratorium, oil, richard benyon, twitter

Expanding the dimensions of peaceful protest

Posted by jossc — 23 September 2010 at 1:18pm - Comments

From Anais in the survival pod on the Stena Carron:

It’s my first time on the Shetland Islands. Rolling green hills, stunning cliffs, great wildlife, castle ruins and plenty of sheep everywhere. You can see how the life of the islands' inhabitants has been shaped by the sea over centuries. I am glad for this glance at another beautiful side of this planet - although we didn’t have much time on land.

We had to prepare an "instant action pack". On Tuesday morning in a hidden-away bay near Lerwick, the back of a van opened and a self-inflating direct action team popped out and unfolded. Boat drivers, a media team, along with the climb team (that's me and Victor from Sweden) boarded two inflatables filled with various gear bags and headed towards our target, Chevron's oil drilling ship, the Stena Carron.

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, go beyond oil, oil, oil spill, shetland

Pod tour - what it's like inside the yellow bubble

Posted by jamess — 23 September 2010 at 8:45am - Comments

Watch Leila give us a tour of the inside of the pod - the little survival station we've got setup on Chevron's anchor chain.

The pod has everything you need, bathroom, kitchen, hospital .. and housemates.

We'll get you updates from the pod as soon as we get them, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or GoBeyondOil.org for the latest.

-- James on the Esperanza

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, go beyond oil, oil, oil spill, shetland, videos

Day 2 - Love for the pod

Posted by jamess — 22 September 2010 at 9:58pm - Comments

Following a heroic 24 hours by Anais and Victor in the tent suspended off the anchor chain, today we stepped it all up a notch by bringing in a purpose-built half-tonne survival pod.

I say ‘we’ but in fact I just sat on the safety boat watching in awe at the rigging magic going on at the hands of Anais, Victor, Nazareth and Timo.

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, go beyond oil, oil, oil spill, pod

Stick your message on our pod

Posted by jamie — 22 September 2010 at 1:31pm - Comments

Not all of us can scamper up an oil rig's anchor chain - but we can all come up with ideas, and we need yours asap.

As our occupation of Chevron's massive drill ship goes on, we want a banner slogan from you to explain what our politicians need to do about deep water drilling.

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, energy, esperanza, go beyond oil, oil, stena don

Chevron: another company that needs to go beyond oil

Posted by jamie — 22 September 2010 at 9:45am - Comments

As you probably know by now, the ship our climbers are currently sitting on is the Stena Carron, a 228m drill ship operated by US oil giant Chevron. Texaco, its petrol station subsidiary, is perhaps the name you may be more familiar with, but here are a few facts about the company that you might not know.

Chevron's boss, John S Watson, is a director and member of the executive committee of the American Petroleum Institute (API). The API is a major lobby group funding research which seeks to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change.

Article tagged as: chevron, climate change, energy, go beyond oil, oil
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