EXTINCTION Rebellion activists from Dorset have travelled to London to protest outside the headquarters of Perenco.
Protesters, accompanied by the ‘Grim Reaper’, are demanding the oil and gas company do not expand further in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia.
Activists took to the streets in London, Moanda, DRC, and La Morena, Colombia in solidarity.
Members of XR BCP trekked to London after three protests in Dorset calling for its operating permits and licence be revoked from the Perenco site at Wytch Farm.
- Read more: Extinction Rebellion campaign against Perenco at Poole Quay
Daniel Glennon, a customer service trainer from Bournemouth, said: “I’ve come to Perenco’s London HQ today to demand they give us the full truth about the leak in Poole Harbour in March.
“We observed oil on the water 24 hours before Perenco admitted to there being a leak.
“Why did they hire private security to keep local people away from parts of the harbour and stop them filming during the clean-up? What was Perenco trying to hide?”
Ralph Doe, a retired bookshop owner from France, said: “I was shocked when 200 barrels of reservoir fluid from Perenco’s oil drilling site at Wytch Farm leaked into environmentally sensitive Poole Harbour, and even more shocked when I found Perenco is harming indigenous people and causing environmental damage in 14 countries.
“It’s time for them to pay for the loss and damage.”
The protestors were demonstrating with large banners against expansion plans into Nganzi or Matamba-Makanzi in the DRC and La Morena, Colombia.
In a statement read outside Perenco’s HQ in Moanda, activists said: “We ask the Congolese State to abandon the sale of other oil fields in the Moanda area and not to allow Perenco to expand its activities on the Nganzi2 and Matamba Makanzi 2 oil blocks.
“The supposed ‘windfall’ from oil is doing nothing to lift the people of Moanda out of poverty.”
In June, a spokesperson for Perenco confirmed an investigation into the spill in Dorset is ongoing.
It said when the spill occurred, production was shut down immediately and there has been no further ‘loss of containment’ to Poole Harbour.
It added the pipeline will be kept offline until the investigation is complete, and that the clean-up has made ‘very good progress’ since the leak.
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