Pipeline protesters seek picket of Statoil stations

The five Mayo men jailed for their protests against the proposed pipeline from the Corrib gas field have called for a picket …

The five Mayo men jailed for their protests against the proposed pipeline from the Corrib gas field have called for a picket of Statoil stations in the Dublin area tomorrow.

Statoil is a 36.5 per cent shareholder in the consortium that owns the Corrib gas field.

The protesters want Statoil to apply the same environmental and health and safety standards to the Corrib gas field as they would in Norway. All of Norway's oil and gas is processed on offshore platforms.

The Norwegian government is the majority shareholder in Statoil.

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In Mayo, the Shell-led consortium plans to process the gas on-shore and pump the raw gas under high pressure through a nine-mile pipeline. Local residents stress that they are opposed to this method of refining rather than the exploitation of the gas.

Last week the protesters handed in a letter to the Norwegian embassy calling on the Norwegian government to ensure that the refining of the gas took place offshore.