Between 7am and 8am this morning (16th February 2007) while the city was still in darkness, a number of activists shut down eight different Shell petrol stations in and surrounding the city centre of Edinburgh. This action was a solidarity action for the Shell to Sea campaign in Rossport, County Mayo and also to target Shell for being a major contributor to global warming and climate change. The action was purposely planned to coincide with the action taking place at the Ballinaboy refinery site on the same morning.

The activists turned the emergency shut down levers so the pumps stopped working and the station was unable to sell anymore fuel. They left a shell shaped skull and a note at each station (stuck on with Shell to Sea stickers) stating;

“Shell has been shut down today in Solidarity with the innocent people around the world that have been subject to their bullying and use of violence.

Shell is a massive contributor to Global Warming and Climate Change – the greatest threats to life on earth

The community of Rossport, on the West Mayo coast in Ireland, are under siege due to Shell’s desire to get their hands on the gas reserve. Shell is building an extremely dangerous onshore gas pipeline through Rossport and a massive refinery destroying this beautiful coast and endangering hundreds of lives.

This has to stop now. The innocent people of the area are fighting for survival against an evil multinational corporation. They fear for their lives, their children and their community.

Join us in the fight against Shell – Boycott Shell and make them withdraw this disasterous pipeline sheme from County Mayo, Ireland”.

There were no police involved and therefore no arrests were made. Some stations remained shut down for a number of hours, and unfortunately some were started up again quite quickly.

The fact that one or maybe more of the emergency shut down levers were faulty and did not stop the pumps immediately adds to Shell’s track record of being a dangerous company with no regard for health and safety. These levers are meant to be used in an event of fire or emergency (or solidarity actions!) and the fact that they are faulty and difficult to access means that in an emergency the station would not shut down and the pumps would continue to dispense fuel.

Later that afternoon, all of the targeted stations were up and running again. But the message was clearly left and the stations were shut down and had empty forecourts during the morning rush hour.

There are no photographs available yet.