The Swedish semi-submersible oil platform Stena Dee is carrying equipment vital to beginning oil production at the new BP Foinaven field. It has specialised 'Deemac' dive gear which will be used to connect subsea manifolds to well heads. This is needed to enable the Foinaven project to produce its first oil.

The Stena Dee, which is under tow by the tug Oil Provider, was on route to the Foinaven Field from Norway when seven Greenpeace activists climbed on to it at 1630 hours on Saturday. It was halted some 30 miles from the field and around 70 miles from the Scottish coast, the Greenpeace vessels Rainbow C (which had been campaigning in the North Sea) and the MV Greenpeace (which had been stopping seismic vessels in the Atlantic Frontier) carried out the occupation action.

After more than 24 hours of stalemate, the Stena Dee informed Greenpeace that it would sail to Foinaven as originally planned. To prevent it doing so Greenpeace placed swimmers some three miles ahead in the platform's path. This exercise was repeated three times, each time forcing the platform to divert from its course. On one occasion the platform's front tug came within a few hundred meters of the swimmers in a force seven storm. It is currently moving slowly (one knot or less) towards the Foinaven field with two activists still on it. At present the rig is around 50 miles west of Shetland and 50 miles north of Orkney, and some 20 - 25 miles south east of Foinaven.

Foinaven is the furthest developed part of the UK Atlantic Frontier oil field, located West of Shetland. Run by BP, Foinaven uses a novel combination of technology in unprecedently deep and rough waters to extract oil.

Since August 1996 Greenpeace has called upon BP and the UK Government to abandon the development because fossil fuel reserves should not be expanded, as there are already too many to burn 'safely' within ecological limits to climate change.

The Foinaven field relies upon a Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO) the 'Petrojarl Foinaven', which is 250 metres long, 34 metres wide, has the capacity to store 350,000 barrels of oil (ca 45,000 tonnes), and the largest floating groundflare in the world, with the capacity to burn off 3.2 million cubic metres of excess gas a day. It is seen as a technology testing ground for deep water offshore oil expansion. According to the OECD 80% of new oil development in the next 20 years is expected to lie offshore.

The Foinaven is connected to the seabed by flexible 'risers' and these connect to subsea well heads by a complex of pipes. The Foinaven field was due on stream in 1996 but has been repeatedly delayed by technical failures in the form of pipe/mainfold cracking due to the very low water temperatures and blockages.

The Stena Dee has been working more or less full time in Foinaven this year. Stena Dee is now to due to return to 'drilling centre two' to hook up manifold and 'xmas trees', ie placing of flow lines (pipes). The manifold is one of two that have had to be switched and repaired due to failures.

Stena Dee has special dive gear required for job, and this is one of the final tasks before first oil production from the Foinaven field, in some 500 metres of water.

The magazine Euroil reported in June 'ATLANTIC PROJECT GRINDS TO A HALT '..."last months decision to raise manifold from drilling centre one for the second time......could throw back first oil possibly to September......start of production scheduled for 29th November...........BP admitted this was major setback to onstream date.. say it could now be "some months away".

As well as threatening climate, oil from Foinaven will be taken off by a relay of tankers - one every three days - threatening oil spills as well as smothering of seabed life by drilling muds and pollution from discharges.

Greenpeace has succeeded in engaging the European Commission in questioning the UK's application of European law in the development of the area for oil, because there has been no use of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive.

Greenpeace has been opposing oil exploration in the Atlantic Frontier as part of its climate protection campaign to get governments to accept a ceiling on the use of fossil fuels and to stop new oil exploration. It has called on the Stena Dee to return to Norway and on BP to give up on its ill fated Foinaven site. (The Stena Dee is owned by Stena Drilling Ltd., of Aberdeen, a Swedish company).

BP has long been concerned that Greenpeace would target the Foinaven field and in March this year indicated that it would use criminal proceedings against Greenpeace and seek financial recompense of some £1.5 million a day for any halt in its production.

BP is one of 22 oil companies which joined forces to oppose Greenpeace in the High Court when the environmental organisation tried to get leave for a full judicial review of the Government's licensing of the Atlantic frontier. The judge overruled the Government and oil companies objections and the leave hearing will take place in September.