Major construction is scheduled to begin on the controversial Shell onshore gas refinery in County Mayo, Ireland within the next month. The planned refinery and the high pressure pipeline, which would supply it with unprocessed gas from the offshore Corrib gas field, have been bitterly opposed by local residents and their many national and international supporters since it was first proposed in 2000.

Shell and their partners Statoil and Marathon had hoped to have the facility in operation by 2003, but massive local resistance has meant that, four years on, the development is still in its infancy. An impressive feat considering the odds; the Irish state has backed the multinationals all the way, changing and ignoring planning and environmental protection laws and transferring huge numbers of police to the area to suppress the protesters. With the resistance camp having already celebrated their two-year anniversary, this weekend marked two years since the imprisonment of the Rossport Five. It also saw the end of the preparatory phase of the development process as peat extraction from the site was completed.

For more information check out  http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news595.htm

For more info on recent standoff between local community and Shell and Gaurdi when Shell tried to illegally install a portacabin onto private land see  http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82983

Rossport Solidarity Camp welcomes visitors. check out:  http://www.struggle.ws/rsc/