Shell is suing Greenpeace for $2.1 million in the British court system after six activists boarded an oil company ship to denounce hydrocarbon exploitation, the environmental group and the company reported on Thursday, November 9.
Greenpeace responded in a statement to this trial as “intimidation”, calling the complaint “one of the biggest legal threats” the NGO has had to face “in more than 50 years of its history.”
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Twice, in late January and early February, six Greenpeace activists boarded a ship sailing across the Atlantic Ocean carrying a Shell platform intended to expand an oil and gas field in Scotland.
Environmental scientists remained on board for several days.
“Shell and its subcontractors are entitled to recover significant costs related to Greenpeace’s dangerous actions,” the company said in a statement.
The company explains that the “significant” expenses were necessary to implement precautionary measures to prevent other activists from continuing to board its ship and to ensure the safety of protesters and the crew.
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According to procedural documents, Shell is asking the High Court in London for compensation in the amount of $2.1 million, mainly for costs incurred by Fluor, the American subcontractor responsible for manufacturing and delivering the platform. The latter company can claim an additional $6.5 million.
Greenpeace also expressed its disagreement with Shell’s proposal to reduce the requested amount to $1.4 million if the organization committed “to never again organize protests against Shell’s infrastructure, at sea or in ports, anywhere in the world.” According to the statement of the non-governmental organization.
A Shell spokesman declared: “Our intention has been distorted,” adding that “it is simply a matter of preventing actions at sea or in ports that could put people’s lives at risk.”
“The right to protest is fundamental and we fully respect it. But it must be done safely and legally.
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