Nine activists have now been detained since the occupation of the offshore rig on Sunday

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Police have arrested two Greenpeace climate protestors who had helped occupy a North Sea oil rig on the Cromarty Firth since Sunday evening.

The two men aged 50 and 40 were taken off the Transocean rig after police landed specialist officers on its helideck on Thursday afternoon, before lowering the rig closer to the surface of the water.

Police Scotland said nine Greenpeace activists had now been arrested, including three who have now appeared in court charged with disorderly conduct.

The group first occupied the Paul B Loyd Jr rig as it left the Cromarty Firth on Sunday night before unfurling a banner warning of a “climate emergency” from a gantry around one leg of the 27,000-tonne platform. There had been a rotation of activists but all have now been taken off the rig.

Ch Supt George Macdonald, the local commander, said: “The particular nature of this protest on an oil platform within a marine environment made this an extremely complex and challenging operation.

“Police Scotland fully understand the rights and privileges of peaceful protests, however, there is a balance when such actions are potentially reckless and compromise safety. We also have a duty to act where criminality is suspected or identified.”

The two men are likely to appear in court on Friday. Greenpeace has accused BP, which is sending the rig to the Vorlich field where it hopes to extract 30 million barrels of oil, of hypocrisy by insisting it believes in tackling the climate crisis while at the same time maximising production from its oil and gas fields.

In a statement BP accused the protestors of a dangerous PR stunt. “BP supports discussion, debate and peaceful demonstration, but the irresponsible actions of Greenpeace put themselves and others unnecessarily at risk,” the company said.

“We share the protestors’ concerns about climate change, we support the Paris agreement [to cap global temperature rises at 1.5C] and are committed to playing our part to advance the energy transition.

“However, progress to a lower carbon future will depend on coming together, understanding each other’s perspectives and working to find solutions, not dangerous PR stunts that exacerbate divisions and create risks to both life and property.”

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, accused BP of misdirecting its energies. “Our activists have blocked BP’s rig for five long days, braving the rain and the cold, to stop this oil giant from fuelling the climate emergency,” he said.

“BP is hell-bent on drilling for more climate-wrecking oil, and we’re hellbent on stopping them. If this company put half as much effort into shifting their business towards renewables and tackling the climate emergency, we’d be much closer to solving it.”