August 2000. Six Greenpeace volunteers (including four Britons) today occupied a British Petroleum transport barge off the Alaskan coast as it was being towed to the construction site of the Northstar project - the first offshore oil development in the Arctic Ocean. The volunteers (from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise) boarded the massive sea barge at 9.00am GMT (midnight in Alaska). The barge carries the main operating and accomodation modules for Northstar.
Greenpeace has been campaigning for more than 20 years to stop oil exploration and drilling in the Beaufort Sea, and our particular focus over the past four years has been BP's Northstar project. Greenpeace has reviewed thousands of documents and permits on the project, and has provided oral and written comment at every stage of the permitting process.
A coalition of environmentalists and investors from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, have combined to challenge BP Amoco's oil expansion plans in the Arctic and the company's lack of action on climate change.
Beaufort Sea, Alaska, 7pm (UK time) - In an effort to protect the Arctic from the dual threats of climate change and oil spills four Greenpeace activists attempted to stop the controversial pipe-laying operation at BP's Northstar project, the first offshore oil project to be built in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast. One activist managed to climb onto the backhoe laying the pipe and displayed a banner reading "Stop BP's Northstar". The pipe-laying operation is currently stopped. Police have now arrested all four Greenpeace activists.
Four Greenpeace volunteers have occupied a second oil exploration rig in Cromarty Firth, Scotland, as part of a campaign to stop dangerous climate change and protect marine life in the north east Atlantic. The occupation comes just days after two Greenpeace climbers occupied the Jack Bates exploration rig in the same area. Both rigs are due to begin drilling operations in the deep waters west of the Hebrides (the so called "Atlantic Frontier") which is Europe's most important habitat for whales and coral reefs.
Police are still searching for two Greenpeace volunteers who vanished after abandoning their occupation of an oil rig.
The protesters had tied themselves to Enterprise Oil's Jack Bates platform in the Cromarty Firth on Sunday and spent the night there before coming down at 1600 BST on Monday. Grampian Police then lost sight of them.
The protesters left the rig after being ordered to come down by a judge in Edinburgh who granted Enterprise Oil an interdict.
