About 30 members of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) arrived at the Esso West facility in west London at around 4am, where they built two bamboo structures, XR said. According to the environmental protest group, as soon as they blocked the entrance, the group unfurled two large banners reading: “Join Us – London 9th April” and “Stop Fossil Fuels Now”. Andrew Smith, of the Extinction Rebellion, said: “We are here to say that climate action can not wait. At the moment, governments are choosing to take advantage of the crisis in Ukraine to grant oil licenses and continue the fossil fuel economy that is destroying us. “They are exploiting the fear and disorientation of the public in a time of crisis where people’s accounts are rising to promote corporate-friendly policies that can not attract democratic support.” This is the fourth time since Friday that XR has blocked the same oil terminal, while other environmentalists struck at nine other terminals over the weekend as part of a campaign to disrupt the UK’s fuel distribution infrastructure. Just Stop Oil. . Just Stop Oil has vowed to continue “civil resistance” protests until the government agrees to a moratorium on all new fossil fuel projects and claims to have more than 1,000 supporters willing to be arrested for participating. On Friday, campaign supporters shut down 10 refineries across the country, including three in the Midlands, three in Essex, two in Hampshire, one in London and one in Hemel Hempstead. On Saturday, they closed seven terminals and a large truck park that houses oil tankers. And on Sunday, they shut down at least five oil refineries, plus Thames Oilport. More than 80 people were arrested in Essex over the weekend, while 14 were arrested in Staines in Surrey and six were arrested in Birmingham, according to PA Media. Just Stop Oil said it had recorded more than 290 arrests among supporters involved in the protests. In Essex, activists dug tunnels under the roads leading to the Inter Terminals and Navigator oil terminals. Traffic inside and outside the site was disrupted at the weekend but resumed on Monday, with police escorting off-road tankers over the tunnels, a Just Stop Oil spokesman said. More action was scheduled for Monday, Just Stop Oil reported. There have been anecdotal reports of fuel shortages at gas stations, with local newspapers in Kent and Northampton claiming on social media that the petrol pumps were dry. A spokesman for Sainsbury’s, the UK’s largest petrol retailer, insisted the company “sees no problem”, but said it was monitoring the situation closely. A source at a leading fuel retailer said the protests were likely to start having an impact if they continued. “None of our stations ran out of fuel over the weekend, we just had to divert some of the terminals further north,” the source said. “This does not mean [the protests] it will not have an impact if they continue. “ The impact of the protests on retailers’ supply chains had been mitigated by a quiet weekend, the source said. “If it happened on Mother’s Day, it might have been a little harder,” he added. The XR shutdown in Shell and elsewhere came ahead of another protest campaign in London on Saturday. The group says the planned “mass uprising in London” will include “regular clever, highly subversive mass action” that will “create the most roadblocks we have ever had”. XR said in a statement: “The Uprising of Extermination invites all those watching the ongoing demonstrations to take part in them in Hyde Park. [on Saturday] at 10 in the morning to put an end to fossil fuels. “We will be back on the streets day by day until our immediate request is met – the UK government to immediately end all new investment in fossil fuels.”
