Picket at Norwegian Embassy

international | environment | news report Tuesday August 30, 2005 15:25 by anarchaeologist - Shell to Sea Dublin

Up to 30 people took part in a picket of the Norwegian Embassy this lunchtime to protest at the involvement of Statoil in the continued detention of the Rossport 5 in Cloverhill prison.

Statoil, the Norwegian state petroleum company, has a 36.5% stake in the Corrib gas field. It has been hiding behind the major partner, Shell since the campaign against the Erris pipeline began. While the Irish media has been slow to pick up on Statoil’s involvement, the campaign is getting increasing coverage in Norway, where oil revenues have financed one of the best funded welfare states in the world.

And it only gets better for the Norwegians. The tax payer there will benefit from the gas off the coast of Ireland while the Irish tax payer will get nothing.

Norwegians are proud of their country and what it has achieved. They are unlikely to accept that 5 men have been put in prison indefinitely for standing up for the health and safety of their community, imprisoned at the behest of a multinational, assisted by an acquiescent government which negotiated the ‘deal’ in the first place.

Those on the picket represented a broad cross section of those opposed to the Statoil-Shell pipeline and protests will escalate until the demands of the Rossport 5 and the people of Erris are met.