Just Stop Oil: Activists storm Essex terminal in bid to cut off petrol supply to southeast England

Activists hoping to cut off the supply of petrol to the whole of southeast England have occupied one of the region’s busiest oil terminals.

A group of 25 members of the Just Stop Oil campaign used ladders to scale the fence at Navigator oil terminal in Thurrock, Essex, in the early hours of Wednesday.

This is the sixth day of action from the campaigners, who have been protesting against oil terminals across the southeast and Midlands since Friday.

They are calling for the government to “stop planning the destruction of their future” and to “end all new oil and gas”.

The group said activists have climbed on top of tankers and pipes inside fuel loading bays at the Navigator facility and have locked on to disrupt supply.

Speaking from inside the terminal, one activist, named as Hannah, from Brighton, said: “I’m so scared. I’m 23 and the only way people will listen to me is if I lock onto the pipework of a fuelling station.

“Boris Johnson is signing a death sentence for my future by subsidising £25m a day of taxpayers’ money into new oil and gas.

“They can take away my liberty, they can take away my freedom and they can choose to ignore the alarm we are sounding on the climate crisis.

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“But they can’t take away my courage to put my body on the line for every young person that is suffering from extreme heat in the global south or freezing to death in fuel poverty in the UK and having to choose between heating and eating.

“We are not going to die quietly. Please don’t be a bystander. Say no to new oil.”

Elsewhere, seven supporters have set up a roadblock at a nearby roundabout, which the group says is a key tanker route to other nearby terminals, and another 11 attempted to do the same elsewhere but were intercepted by police.

Protesters have blocked access to oil terminals in locations such as Essex, Warwickshire and near Heathrow Airport since Friday, demanding the government stops new oil and gas projects.

More than 275 protesters, including members of affiliated group Extinction Rebellion, were arrested in the first four days of action, police said.

Tactics have seen protesters glue themselves to roads and dig disruptive tunnels near oil terminals, and invade football pitches.

On Monday, a stark report by the UN called for “substantial reductions” in the use of fossil fuels to curb climate change.

The government will set out a new energy strategy on Thursday, with expectations of support for offshore wind and new nuclear reactors, but not cheap onshore wind, amid clashes over whether to speed up the shift away from oil and gas or boost domestic fossil fuel supplies.