AN ENVIRONMENTAL activism group is continuing to campaign against a Poole Harbour oil company following a 'heart-breaking oil spill'.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) groups from BCP, Wimborne and Purbeck have taken its campaign against French oil firm Perenco to its facility at Furzebrook.

The campaign was sparked by the spill of 200 barrels (approximately 31,600 litres) of reservoir fluid, consisting of 15% crude oil and 85% production fluid, from Perenco's Wytch Farm site into Poole Harbour.

Daniel Glennon from Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a 52-year-old customer service trainer from Bournemouth.

He said: "If Perenco thinks we are going to forget about the heart-breaking oil spill in Poole Harbour in March 2023, they are mistaken.

"We had a small victory with our last action - Perenco finally released a report about what caused the spill and promised remedial action to prevent a future spill.

"We can't trust Perenco with our beautiful harbour and so our campaign continues."

The July 15 protest was Extinction Rebellion's first in Furzebrook, where Perenco has a technical office.

The protest began at 8.30am and was designed to greet Perenco staff as they arrived for work.

Protestors were joined by drummers from XR BCP Rhythms, who provided the musical backdrop as rebels displayed banners and flags. Chants ringing out around the village included "Perenco out!" and "Perenco - stop the harm!"

Liz Brereton, also from XR BCP and a counsellor from Bournemouth, explained the choice of date for the latest protest.  

She said: "We've chosen the date of our latest Perenco action as it is the second annual EU Day for the Victims of the Global Climate Crisis. This seems appropriate because of the enormous environmental damage and humanitarian cost of Perenco's actions in the global south."

Extinction Rebellion Wimborne's Joanna Bury, an environmental activist and author from Wimborne Minster, added: "Wytch Farm is a doddering, old oilfield and fossil fuels are yesterday's energy. Perenco needs to shut Wytch Farm before it does any more damage."

This was the seventh protest XR BCP has organised regarding this pollution incident.

Franck Dy, Perenco UK's Wytch Farm General Manager, said:

"I would like to reiterate that we are sorry for the distress caused last year. Our goal is zero harm to the environment and although this was quickly declassified from being a major incident, we take any environmental issue extremely seriously.

"We committed to deploying all the resources necessary and to returning the site to its original state and I am pleased to confirm that this has happened. After a thorough independent review into the cause of the leak, we have taken on board the appropriate lessons and clear measures have been taken to ensure that this will not happen again.

"I would like to thank the local community, multiple government and other agencies, and members of the experts' groups for their support over the past year."