Greenpeace climate activists close in on Shell platform.Chris J Ratcliffe/Greenpeace

• Greenpeace activists used ropes to board a ship carrying a Shell oil rig.

• Four activists have been on the ship for five days to protest climate destruction.

• This week, Shell announced a record $39.9 billion in profits for the past year.

Four environmental activists then remain firmly planted on a Shell oil platform in the Atlantic dramatic shots showed protesters boarding earlier this week.

The video, posted by Greenpeace on Tuesday, shows a tense moment as an activist swings on a rope above the ocean as gusty winds and crashing waves rush in. In the recording, someone can be heard saying “just fine”, as they board the White Marlin, a vessel that carries Shell’s oil and gas platform.

The 400ft rig is “critical equipment” for Shell which will enable the company to develop eight new wells in the Penguins oil and gas field in the North Sea off Shetland, according to the international environmental organisation.

On board the four activists – Carlos Marcelo Bariggi Amara from Argentina; Yakup Çetinkaya from Turkey; Imogen Michel from the UK and Usnea Granger from the USA – held a banner reading “Stop Drilling. Start paying” in a peaceful protest “against the global climate destruction caused by Shell and the entire fossil fuel industry”.

The four followed the white marlin as it sailed north of the Canary Islands aboard Greenpeace’s vessel Arctic Sunrise. They were accompanied by two other activists who were unable to board the ship.

Yeb Saño, managing director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, was unable to board but will remain on the Arctic Sunrise, which follows the White Marlin. Saño explained that they would act because “when Shell extracts fossil fuels, it causes a wave of death, destruction and displacement across the world, with the worst impact on those least responsible for the climate crisis.”

“So we will attack them at sea, at shareholder meetings, in the courtroom, online and at their headquarters. We won’t stop until we achieve climate justice. We will make the polluters pay,” he added.

Protesters were still at the top of the platform on Friday and had “enough food, water and all-weather gear to keep them going for days,” a Greenpeace spokesperson told Insider in a E-mail.

Climate activists on the Shell oil rig.Greenpeace

The protest coincides with the energy giant’s announcement on Thursday of its highest ever profit, with reported profits of $39.9 billion in 2022, more than double the company’s earnings the last year. The gains come after the price of natural gas soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A Shell spokesperson said: “The new floating vessel will allow production from the Penguins field to continue to provide the necessary energy that Britain needs,” the spokesperson told Insider in an e-mail. mail.

Projects like the Penguins oilfield are “fully compatible with a net-zero trajectory as modeled by the UK’s Independent Committee on Climate Change”, they added.

The company said the protest was a safety concern given the “number of people boarding a moving vessel in difficult conditions”.

However, the activists are experienced climbers who “have undergone extensive training to take part in this action”, a Greenpeace spokesperson said, adding that they take safety “very seriously”.

According to a study by the International Energy Agency, “no investment should be made in new fossil fuel supply projects” to achieve a net zero energy solution by 2050.

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