Shell Boards Brent Spar-GP Campaign Not Over

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>> SHELL BOARDS BRENT SPAR: GREENPEACE SAYS CAMPAIGN NOT OVER


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                    GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>> SHELL BOARDS BRENT SPAR: GREENPEACE SAYS CAMPAIGN NOT OVER

BRENT SPAR, North Sea 23 May 1995 (GP) As police and workers from
the Shell vessel Stadive started removing Greenpeace activists
from the Brent Spar oil installation in the North Sea, Greenpeace
said the campaign to stop the Spar being dumped was far from
over.

At 6.10 am, the Stadive used its crane to lower a basket
containing 15-20 Shell workers and policemen onto the helicopter
deck of the Spar.  By 0900 hrs local time ten activists and nine
journalists had been taken to the Stadive. This was the second
attempt by the enormous Shell vessel to board the Spar;
yesterday's early morning attempt was thwarted by bad weather.
Greenpeace vessel Moby Dick, which managed to supply the Spar
with fresh food overnight, is nearby and observing the
activities.

"Even if they get us all off, this is by no means the end of our
campaign," said Jan Rispens aboard the Spar.  "It is only three
weeks until the North Sea Ministers meeting where the UK
Government is going to have to face the wrath of its neighbours."

The activists on the Spar had to send a message to the Brent
Alpha to ask the boarding party to refrain from smoking on the
heli-deck -- which was in breach of Shell's own safety
regulations.

Since Greenpeace boarded the Spar on 30 April, Belgium, Iceland
and Denmark have all protested to the UK Government for allowing
the dumping of the Spar to go ahead.  The European Parliament and
the European Environment Commissioner have also protested, and
others are expected to follow today.

Rispens said that Shell was talking nonsense when stating that
the workers want to remove the 130 tonnes of toxic waste from the
Spar before dumping.

"Shell knows that it cannot remove all the toxic waste from the
Spar while it is at sea -- in fact it doesn't even have a proper
picture of exactly what waste is in the Brent Spar. Shell is
trying to appear responsible to the public whilst carrying out
one of the most irresponsible acts of environmental vandalism we
have seen for years," said Rispens.


Meanwhile, at exactly the same time as Shell was boarding the
Spar, 50 Greenpeace activists in the Hague blocked all eight
entrances of the Shell International building,  in protest at
Shell's plans to dump the Spar, laden with 130 tonnes of toxic
and radioactive waste, into the North East Atlantic. "Stop
Dumping Platforms" read a banner hung from the main gates of the
building.

                             ends

For information:  Mary Morrison in Lerwick: ++44 1595 694 099;
Cindy Baxter in London 44 171 833 0600.