Mr. A.P. Dawson Manager Foinaven Business Unit BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd Britoil plc Golar-Nor House Howe Moss Drive Kirkhill Industrial Estate Dyce Aberdeen AB21 0GL 19 February, 1997

Thank you for your letter of 10 February 1997, addressed to my colleague Simon Reddy.

I hope that my absence from the office has not inconvenienced you and I am happy to learn that you will be able to come and meet with us here on Friday (21st) at 2.30 PM.

I share your ambition to achieve a constructive atmosphere for discussion and do not think that inserting academic preconditions will help us to achieve this.

Your letter to Simon Reddy was interesting but appears to have missed the point of our concerns about exploration in the Atlantic Frontier. Our concerns, as I hope you will appreciate, is with the fossil fuel problem as a whole, and not confined to the activities of any one part of BP or to BP as a company.

When we meet, perhaps a useful topic of discussion might be the "carbon logic" behind action on climate change. You say in your letter that BP's goal is "operating with `no damage to the environment'", and I agree this is an admirable one. It is, as you say, also "an aim entirely consistent with the concept of sustainable development". Unfortunately, your operations are not consistent with either the goal or the aim.

The use of fossil fuels is the major past, present and projected future cause of greenhouse gas pollution. All production and use of fossil fuels contributes to this, and production of these fuels - such as oil - is your core business.

Already atmospheric levels are 50% above pre-industrial levels. The observed temperature rise since pre industrial times is 0.3-0.6ºC and the Second Assessment Report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) notes this is mainly due to fossil fuels.

Of course emissions from sources such as fossil fuels continue and are projected to increase rapidly. In these circumstances, it is essential for the world to begin a phase out of fossil fuels As we have pointed out in our letter to the Prime Minister, it is particularly hypocritical for the UK Government to publicly criticise the fossil fuel lobby and call for climate protection while engineering the expansion of fossil fuels on the Atlantic Frontier.

Of course climate change is not the only problem which faces the environment. There are many other environmental impacts of developments which concern us, and we would also be happy to discuss those with you in the light of the Atlantic Frontier development.

As you may know, we have already discussed the Atlantic Frontier with a number of your colleagues, and look forward to doing so with you. In that context will you confirm that you are representing BP as a whole, and not simply the Foinaven Business Unit. For my part I am able to confirm that I am representing the whole of Greenpeace.

Yours sincerely

Sarah J. Burton
Director, Campaign for Sane Energy
GREENPEACE UK

cc: Simon Reddy
Deborah Tripley