Oil & Gas UK, a representative body for the UK’s offshore industry, has said that there are no winners following Greenpeace’s 12-day protest over BP’s drilling plans in the UK North Sea. 

Commenting on reports that Greenpeace has ended its protest in the North Sea, Oil & Gas UK (OGUK) Stakeholder and Communications Director, Gareth Wynn, said on Thursday: “There are no winners as a result of this stunt, which both put safety at risk and failed to produce any solutions to how we can achieve the net zero future we all want to see.

“The arguments from Greenpeace are fundamentally flawed and sadly fail to recognize the reality that prematurely shutting down the North Sea will only increase the UK’s reliance on imports from across the world.”

Wynn added: “We live in a world with an ever-growing demand for energy which at the same time needs an ever-reducing carbon footprint. Our industry is committed to help find practical solutions to one of the biggest challenges we will face. It’s time for deeds, not words, and we’d encourage anyone with a serious interest to work with us.”

Greenpeace ended its twelve-day protest over BP’s UK North Sea drilling plans on Thursday, June 20 after three rig occupations, eleven arrests, injunctions from both sides, and several attempts to stop the BP-chartered and Transocean-owned drilling rig Paul B. Loyd, Jr. However, the environmental group did not stop there. Greenpeace continued with a series of protests targeting BP in Europe and the U.S.

The coordinated protests brought to an end 12 days in which Greenpeace thwarted BP’s attempts to use the Paul B. Loyd, Jr. rig in the North Sea. A series of legal injunctions were brought against Greenpeace, the climbers, and the Arctic Sunrise by BP and its rig contractor Transocean in an attempt to end the protest.

Despite this, three sets of Greenpeace UK climbers prevented BP’s rig from leaving the Cromarty Firth in Scotland for five days. This was followed by a further standoff in the North Sea between the rig and the Greenpeace International ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which prevented the rig from reaching the drill site, including through a Greenpeace International swimmer blocking the rig’s path.

Greenpeace is demanding of BP to immediately end drilling new wells and switch to only investing in renewable energy. If BP does not do that, Greenpeace says, it should wind down its operations, return cash to investors and go out of business.