Greenpeace Aims To Prevent Platform Sinking

Greenpeace sent its largest vessel to the north Atlantic on Monday to prevent Royal Dutch Shell from sinking an offshore oil platform into the sea. Two Greenpeace activists spent their third full day on the platform, hoping to prevent Shell from using explosives to send the rig to the ocean floor.

Prime Minister John Major, meanwhile, expressed his “full support” for Shell in the dispute.

The plan has provoked fierce opposition from other European countries, which have called on Shell and the British government to find another way to dispose of the oil platform.

The environmental group Greenpeace said the “Solo” was en route to the proposed dumping site, 150 miles northwest of the Outer Hebrides, off Scotland’s northwest coast.

The platform is expected to reach the site about midday today.