The protest was organized by members of the Extinction Rebellion, who want to achieve a gradual termination of oil and gas extraction in the country.
Approximately 200 climate protection activists, including Greta Thunberg on Monday, blocked the entrance to the largest oil refinery in Norway to protest the oil industry in the country, the organizers and the local police said. According to the AFP report, TASR reports this.
Activists from the Extinction Rebellion sat on the road and blocked the Mongstad refinery in Bergen on the southwest coast of Norway. Meanwhile, the entrance to the port was closed by activists by kayaks and sailboats.
Protest against oil production
“We are here, because it is quite clear that oil has no future. Fossil fuels lead to death and destruction,” Thunberg said in a statement, adding that oil producers as Norway “have blood on their hands”.
Activists plan to continue a series of protests in Norway throughout the week. They demand that Norwegian politicians submit a “plan to gradually terminate oil and gas extraction”.
The police said it was on the spot and monitored the situation from approximately 9:00 am.
AFP explains that the combustion of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet.
Refinery and state oil giant
Norway is the largest oil and gas producer in Western Europe and is regularly criticized for their mining. However, Oslo insists that this industry provides jobs and emphasizes the importance of securing stable energy supplies to Europe, AFP explains.
The Mongstad refinery is owned by the Norwegian oil giant Equinor, the majority owner of which is the Norwegian state. Equinor said it intends to maintain oil extraction in the country at a stable level of 1.2 million barrels a day until 2035 and expects it to produce 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year by 2035.
