Dip Dip Delay for Cardigan Bay!
Cardigan Bay Campaigners Force Oil Company U Turn
The long running campaign to halt oil and gas exploration of Cardigan Bay, West Wales, notched up another victory this month as the oil giant Chevron, owners of Gulf Oil, announced a second 12 month delay in their drilling program. They were originally due to drill in October 96 but postponed this until October 97 after internal disagreements with their financial partners in the project. Local campaigners have been gearing up since then to fight Chevron’s plans for oil rigs in Cardigan Bay. Rallies and public meetings were held, thousands of leaflets were distributed and a boycott campaign against Gulf Oil (which is in deep financial trouble anyway) was launched.
On the 7th of August an alliance of local activists and anti-oil campaigners from around the UK gathered in London at the offices of Chevron (2 Portman St. London W1 0171 487 8100) to mount the largest action of the campaign so far. Eight activists got into the building and barricaded themselves in offices on the top floor. Lots of data was recovered and loads more was “adjusted”. Meanwhile more bodies scaled the front of the building to hang banners. Most employees were at lunch when the action happened and couldn’t get back in after the ‘in’security guards locked up the building. The office sitters were finally removed three hours later. Chevron then announced that they would not be drilling this year and will delay until October 98 at the earliest! They also said they would do an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)of the drilling before then, something that even the European Union couldn’t get them to do! That night Cardigan Bay was the lead story on all channels of the Welsh TV news, with Earth First! as the winners of a David and Goliath struggle for the Bay.
Cardigan Bay is safe for another year - but what then? The struggle to save the Bay will continue until its future is secured forever. The discovery of a new group of resident Risso Dolphins and another sighting of a huge Leatherbacked Turtle during a wildlife survey of the north of the Bay just days before the action proves that Cardigan Bay is a mostly unknown, unspoilt wilderness. We will keep it this way.
Info: Cardigan Bay Earth First!, Temperance House, Taliesin, Machynlleth, Powys, or Corporate Watch, Box E, 111 Magdalen Rd., Oxford, OX4 1RQ T: 01865 791391