SEISMIC TESTING HALTED AS ACTIVISTS THREATENED
London, 6 August 1997
Seismic testing vessels endeavouring to survey two tranches in the Atlantic Frontier have lost 52 hours of testing and have threatened activists as a stand off is reached in the North East Atlantic.
The threat came this morning after two Greenpeace activists climbed onto the air guns at the rear of the Geo Explorer which had set its testing array ready to survey tranche 44. The guns emit explosions of up to 225 decibels and the activists, a British woman and Australian man, sat on a gun each to prevent them being fired.
Shortly after this move, the Geo Explorer said that it would retract its testing array and the activists returned to the inflatables, when the array was not retracted they resumed position on top of the guns. At around 1030 hrs a representative from the Geo Explorer threatened to begin exploding the guns at 1040 hrs. He said the activists should be removed but they have remained in place and the guns have not, as yet, been fired.
Later, after midday, the company operating the seismic vessels, PGS, sent a message to Greenpeace alleging that its activities were 'potentially lethal actions' and that they had 'notified the relevant authorities of your life-threatening behaviour'.
Jon Castle, Captain of the MV Greenpeace, said, "the risk is entirely down to whether the seismic ships are irresponsible enough to fire the guns with activists so close. The main thing is that it is stopping them and every hour they lose is a gain for the climate."
This is the latest move in a four day confrontation between the MV Greenpeace and the testing vessels Geo Explorer, Malene Ostervold and Walther Herwig which have been trying to test on behalf of oil companies Agip, Enterprise and Phillips Oil.
The encounter began on Sunday morning when Greenpeace swimmers entered the water five miles ahead of the testing vessels forcing them to divert. In the early hours of Monday morning the testing vessels did not divert course within safe manoeuvring distance, closing to within only half a mile of the swimmers.
Despite radio conversations with the testing vessels explaining that swimmers were in the water, Jon Castle was forced to fire a distress flare to warn the vessels off. This brought the attention of the Stornoway Coastguard who have continued to monitor activity in the area.
Today's action is an escalation on the previous use of swimmers in the water which force the testing vessels to weave in complicated patterns rather than the straight lines required for successful testing.
It brings Greenpeace actions against seismic vessels in the Atlantic Frontier into is 6th week with hundreds of hours of testing lost to disruption. The season for seismic testing will end in September when the weather becomes too bad for surveys to be carried out.
Preparatory negotiations in Bonn on an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, will end tomorrow. The negotiations will be concluded at a meeting in Kyoto, Japan, in December. Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Robbie Kelman said, "The basic dilemma we all face, is that we cannot burn all the existing reserves of oil, coal and gas without causing catastrophic disruption to the world's climate - more severe floods, droughts and storms and rising sea levels."
"Many national governments, including the United Kingdom, are calling for strong international greenhouse gas reduction targets but at the same time, handing out new oil exploration licenses - this is a complete hypocrisy."
Notes to correspondents:
1) A map of diversions to seismic testing achieved during a previous encounter available on request.
2) For the latest footage of the actions please contact Cindy Baxter on 0171-865 8168
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Greenpeace Press Office on +44 (0)171-865 8255/6/7/8