Greenpeace bid to stop oil drilling

Environmental campaigners suspended themselves from the anchor of an oil drill ship yesterday in a bid to stop it drilling a well in the North Sea.

By The Newsroom

Published 22nd Sep 2010, 09:57 BST

Updated 22nd Sep 2010, 09:57 BST

Greenpeace activists used boats to reach the Stena Carron drill ship, anchored a mile off Shetland, and then climbed up the giant rungs of the chain.

Victor Rask, 38, and Anais Schneider, 29, then settled into a tent suspended by ropes with supplies for a few days.

Greenpeace said that the ship, operated by US energy giant Chevron, was about to sail for a site in the Lagavulin oil field before drilling an exploratory well in 500 metres of water.

Since the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, environmental campaigners and politicians across the world have demanded a ban on new deep water drilling.

Greenpeace is threatening legal action against the Government to stop the granting of new permits for deep water drilling.