Greenpeace Says Shell Threatens Protestors Occupying FPSO with "Jail Time, Fines"

Shell has reportedly threatened legal action against Greenpeace activists who last week boarded a heavy load carrier carrying Shell's Penguins FPSO, destined for deployment in the UK North Sea.

Last Tuesday, four activists climbed aboard the Boskalis' White Marlin vessel carrying the cylindrical FPSO, in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Canary Islands, calling for Shell to "Stop Drilling. Start Paying." Read more here.

According to Greenpeace, Shell, late on Friday, Feb 3, hit the group with an injunction "threatening up to two years' jail time and fines.

Greenpeace said that the injunction stipulated that the four activists on board the FPSO "must seek to agree a plan with the White Marlin’s captain to safely disembark," and that the [Greenpeace] UK-flagged Sea Beaver vessel and the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise and their boats must stay outside a 500-meter exclusion zone around the White Marlin ship."

Greenpeace said the Greenpeace France-chartered trimaran Merida and two other small boats were not included in the injunction application.

The environmental group said that "late Friday evening [FEB 3], Shell delivered a court order granted “ex parte,” meaning Greenpeace was not given advanced notice, nor a chance to offer a defense. This undermines the fairness of the legal process."

In a statement on February 6, Greenpeace said: "Shell’s heavy-handed legal tactics failed, as Greenpeace International successfully went ahead with plans to escalate its protest by adding two more climbers to occupy the company’s oil and gas platform – using other boats unaffected by the court order."

"The platform which six activists are now occupying is a key piece of oil and gas production equipment that will enable Shell to unlock eight new wells in the Penguins field in the North Sea. Burning all of the oil and gas from the field redevelopment would create 45m tonnes of CO2 – more than the entire annual emissions of Norway. And between 1965 and 2018, Shell has been responsible for ten times the carbon pollution of the Philippines," Greenpeace claims.

Offshore Engineer recently reported that the Penguins FPSO had been built in China and that its next destination would be Norway, where it would undertake commissioning works, before deployment in the UK.

AIS shows that the White Marlin is currently in the North Sea, between Denmark and the UK, en route to Haugesund, Norway.