Supporters of the Just Stop Oil campaign have been operating at 11 different petrol stations in the UK since the beginning of the month, blocking and breaching sites to stop tankers from entering, filling or leaving to refuel. Gasoline retailers say the protests have had no serious impact on deliveries. However, there have been dozens of local reports that the petrol pumps have dried up and Priti Patel, the interior minister, said “people across the country [were] watching their lives come to a standstill “due to the uproar caused by the campaign. The protesters have vowed to continue their action until the government agrees to ban all new fossil fuel projects. On Monday afternoon, the 11th day of their operation, several people entered the 31st hour chained in pipelines at the Inter Terminal in Grace, Essex, the third largest terminal in the country. “We are doing this because our government is refusing to act on the climate crisis and we need to have a substantive statement that we will not have new fossil fuel projects, it’s so simple,” said one activist, who gave his name as Nathan. , in a video shot from above from the loading bay at the terminal and posted on Twitter. Responding to Monday’s protests, a No. 10 spokeswoman said: “We recognize the power of emotion and the right to protest is the cornerstone of our democracy, but we will not tolerate guerrilla tactics that prevent people from continuing their daily lives. daily work. “ He added: “We fully support the police who use significant resources in their response to the protests.” The workers demanded security measures to ban the demonstrations. Labor Secretary Steve Reed, the shadow justice minister, said: “The Tory ministers must continue their work. Motorists were already hit by pump prices, and now millions can not even access fuel. All this is happening under the supervision of the government. They have to solve it. “ Any lawsuits should in fact be taken by the fuel terminals and not by the government. An interim injunction banning demonstrations around the Kingsbury oil terminal in the Midlands had a retrial in the Supreme Court on Monday. The decision on the precautionary measures taken by Valero Energy against unknown persons was reserved – that is, it will come later – according to a representative of the corporate lawyers Shoosmiths. Retailers insisted the protests had no significant impact. Sainsbury’s said it was monitoring the situation, but that all its service stations continued to receive deliveries. Morrisons said it supported the comments made by the British Retail Consortium, whose director of food and sustainability, Andrew Opie, said: continue to fill their vehicles as usual. . » A spokesman for the United Kingdom Petroleum Industry Association downplayed the impact of the protests. “The fuel continues to be delivered, which means that stocks are being replenished,” he said. “Ongoing protest activity is affecting some traditions, but the holidays are only local and short-term. “The industry is working hard to ensure that fuel is delivered as quickly as possible.” Local news bulletins continued to show shortages in various parts of the country, including Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire, among others. The first shortages were reported in Kent and Warwickshire as early as April 3 – just two days after the activists took action. On Sunday, Fair Fuels UK, which is campaigning for cheaper gasoline, claimed on Twitter that it had “credible intelligence” that one in three pumps was dry – a claim that was quickly overturned after a government call. On Monday, Ipswich MP Tom Hunt said he had to visit six gas stations before he could refuel his car. “The situation in Ipswich seems to be slightly better than in rural Suffolk, where I was passing this morning,” he told the Ipswich Star. “This is largely due to the selfish behavior of activists linked to Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, who have disrupted fuel supplies and blocked critical warehouses in the area.” He added: “These activists should not be allowed to do this and get away with it. “I know many have been arrested, but in my opinion they should immediately gather and be severely punished for the enormous inconvenience they are causing.” Data from the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Industrial Strategy, covering the first days of the campaign, showed that deliveries at petrol stations began to decline as protests took place, while suburban stocks appeared to be declining. In the three days after the demonstrations began, average daily deliveries were estimated at 33,766 liters per service station, down more than a fifth from 43,243 last week. The drop was even more pronounced in areas served by protest-targeted terminals, with deliveries falling by 43% in the West Midlands, 44% in London and 48% in the east. The level of fuel stocks in the courtyards in the affected areas decreased, with the fall being particularly strong in London, where the average of the courtyard area was 28% full on April 3, from 40% before the beginning of the demonstrations. New data, which will show any effects after April 3, will be published later this week. Just Stop Oil co-ordinators said they had counted 880 arrests as of Sunday afternoon. They said about 400 people had taken part in the campaign so far, and new recruits continued to participate. They vowed to continue their campaign.
