Blogposts tagged 'Shetland'

We've just found out that the government gave Chevron permission to begin deepwater drilling in the waters west of Shetland late last night. This is the first deepwater oil drilling in UK waters since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. We expect Chevron will begin drilling in the next few days.

In the last week our activists spent 50 hours in the water in front of Chevron's drill ship, 100 hours on their anchor chain, and over the last 24 hours 16,000 people sent emails to Climate and Energy Secretary Chris Huhne urging him not to grant Chevron the license. It's been a Herculean effort by all and we can't thank you enough for your support.

The government's decision to open up drilling in ever more difficult and dangerous places to reach is totally irresponsible move and shows clearly that they've not learned the lessons from the BP oil disaster. That's why we're preparing to take them to court.

After a mammoth 50 hours in the water in front of their drill ship, following 100 hours on Chevron's anchor chain, the oil giant's lawyers have again stopped our protest.

Last night we received news over the ship's radio that Chevron had gained another injunction against us, preventing us from interfering in any way with their operation - otherwise face massive daily fines.

We pulled our last swimmers out of the water yesterday afternoon at about four, all of us exhausted after round-the-clock shifts to block the 228-metre Stena Carron from reaching its drill spot.

I've spent the last 46 hours getting in and out of a big red survival suit. Its made out of the thickest wetsuit material and makes me look like a telly-tubby. I can't really move my hands, or arms, or feet, or turn my head, or speak, but it keeps me well toasty in the chilly Atlantic ocean.

Then I am put in a boat, someone squashes fins onto my feet and ten minutes later I am plopped into the sea at the bow of Chevron's drill ship, which we have stopped dead in the water. As I take up a good position at the bow, where the waves meet and I don't get too pushed around, it always reminds me of the wave machines I used to love as a kid, except none of them threw me up and down 5 metres or more.

Watch this great video of Victor, who along with Anais, was the first to scale Chevron’s Stena Carron anchor chain and start the 100 hour occupation of the ship.