Shell Oil Seeks Restraining Order Against Greenpeace

February 28, 2012|By Chris Klint | Channel 2 News

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Shell Oil is requesting a temporary restraining order against Greenpeace to protect its planned offshore drilling operations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, after protesters with the environmental group delayed the departure of a crucial drillship from a New Zealand port Thursday.

According to documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, Shell claims the order is necessary to protect its personnel and equipment drilling wells on the Outer Continental Shelf this summer, as well as to prevent Greenpeace from violating state and federal laws.

“Left unsanctioned, Greenpeace’s actions will prevent Shell from transporting vessels, facilities, supplies, and personnel to the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and from conducting federally-permitted exploration drilling activities on Shell-owned OCS oil and gas leases, during the brief 2012 open-water season in the Arctic,” Shell attorneys with Anchorage-based Stoel Rives LLP wrote in the documents. “If not immediately enjoined, Greenpeace’s illegal antics are intended to, and will cause Shell, irreparable and immeasurable harm.”

Shell has been moving forward with its 2012 plans for the Chukchi, winning government approval of its drilling plan, EPA air permit and oil-spill response plan. A potential roadblock arose last week, when nine environmental and Alaska Native groups filed a legal challenge of Shell’s air permit for the project.

The company's request for a restraining order comes in the wake of a Greenpeace protest action Thursday, in which TV actress Lucy Lawless and six other protesters scaled the derrick of the drillship Noble Discoverer at New Zealand’s Port Taranaki. They were ultimately removed and arrested by local law enforcement officials, who charged them with burglary despite the group’s claims that no property was taken or damaged.

Shell is seeking to bar Greenpeace and affiliated protesters from breaking into, barricading, or interfering with the operations of its vessels, facilities and property, as well as endangering Shell employees or visitors. Its proposed order would protect Shell assets in U.S. ports or operating in U.S. territorial waters, the OCS and waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles offshore from the nation’s coastlines.

The request also seeks the establishment of safety zones around Shell equipment, as well as damages against Greenpeace including the company’s losses from the Noble Discoverer protest, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

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