Shell demands compensation after Greenpeace action on oil platform

Greenpeace said it has received a claim for damages from Shell over the occupation of an oil rig by activists from the environmental organization. The oil and gas company is demanding 100,000 pounds (113,000 euros), in part because Greenpeace activists placed solar panels and a wind turbine on the floating platform. The platform is on its way to the port of the Norwegian city of Haugesund.

According to Greenpeace, Shell also demanded that the four activists on the so-called FPSO, a floating oil production and storage platform, leave the ship. They are activists from Argentina, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They call on Shell to stop drilling for oil and gas and pay for the environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels.

The environmental organization pointed to Shell's record profit of $40 billion last year. Based on that profit figure, it would take Shell "less than two seconds" to earn the amount Greenpeace is asking for.

On Twitter, Greenpeace UK wrote that if someone “earned £40,000 a day from when Jesus was born to the present day, you would still not make as much as Shell did in profits last year.”

Shell said it enforced the injunction because of the "dangerous and illegal occupation of a vessel carrying an important commodity on a busy shipping route." The company’s spokesperson called the demand proportionate and said the intervention was necessary to "protect people and preserve property."

Earlier, a British judge ordered the activists to leave the platform. Under international rules governing shipping at sea, ships are often not allowed to come closer than 500 meters to installations such as oil platforms because it can be unsafe. A London court therefore ruled that the Greenpeace ships Arctic Sunrise and Sea Beaver must keep this distance from the White Marlin. The latter vessel was used by the Dutch company Boskalis to bring the FPSO to Norway.