BP in Green battle
15 Jan 2000
As Process Engineering went to press, the BP Group has obtained a court order to freeze the assets of Greenpeace pending a court hearing over the environmental group's recent eight-day occupation of the mobile oil rig Stena Dee in the North Atlantic. The company is demanding £1.4million in compensation for losses incurred during the occupation, although it has said it will waive these demands if Greenpeace promises to stop impeding its North Atlantic activities.
Greenpeace activists occupied the rig, which was being towed to the Foinaven field west of Shetland, as part of an ongoing campaign to halt oil exploration in the North Atlantic. The group argues that increasing use of fossil fuels will lead to irreversible global warming. BP counters that the occupation of the Stena Dee, which it had hired, was a illegal and interfered with its legitimate business. The company decided not to remove the occupiers from the rig (they were eventually arrested by police).
