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Campaigners scale giant oil rig off Shetland

Last edited 21 September 2010 at 11:58am
21 September, 2010

Environmental campaigners have stopped an oil platform from moving into position to start drilling a well in deep water off the Shetland Islands by climbing up its huge anchor chain.

The Greenpeace activists used boats to reach the 228m long Stena Carron drill ship, anchored a mile off-shore. They then climbed up the giant rungs of the chain. Victor Rask and Anais Schneider are now hanging above the waves in a tent suspended by ropes from one of the metre long rungs, meaning the ship is unable to get to the drill site.

Breaking: Our campaigners scale a giant oil rig off the Shetland Islands

Posted by jamie — 21 September 2010 at 11:31am - Comments

Greenpeace activist Victor, hanging off Chevron's Stena Carron rig

A few moments ago, our activists started taking action against a massive oil platform, stopping it from drilling a deep water well off the Shetland Islands.

Using speedboats to reach the huge 228m long drill ship, they climbed up the giant rungs of the anchor chain, and are now preventing the ship from moving to its drill site.

It all started two days ago, when a handful of activists slipped off the Esperanza - which we knew would be monitored - and boarded a ferry in Aberdeen bound for Lerwick in the Shetland Islands.

Then this morning, at a sign that the drill ship was about to move, they started the action.

Listen!

Victor, one of the climbers, describes what it's like on the Stena Carron's anchor chain

The ship is operated by oil giant Chevron, and was due to sail for a site 200km north of the Shetland Islands and drill a well in 500 metres of water.

More than 10,000 of us have sent an email to Chris Huhne - the Energy Secretary - calling for a moratorium on deepwater drilling in UK waters.  On top of that, last month we sent a letter to the government threatening legal action in an effort to stop the granting of new permits for deep water drilling.

But it's not enough. Deepwater drilling is continuing unabated.

We saw what happened in the Gulf of Mexico only a few months ago. The world's biggest oil spill - a direct consequence of reckless deepwater drilling. It's time we go beyond oil and stop gambling with our environment and the climate.

Follow the latest at GoBeyondOil.org and find out how you too can take action.

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