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Ost Luga — loaded with $116 million worth of Russian jet fuel — was on its way to the port of Slagentangen, about 53 miles south of the capital, Oslo, when activists chained themselves to its berth, Greenpeace Nordic spokesman Odd Hejli Nordow told CNN. If the. .
In an attempt to prevent the tanker from docking seven Nordeau said Greenpeace activists set out on boats through the waters of the Oslo Strait and chained themselves to anchor.
A spokesperson for Greenpeace confirmed to CNN that they were all in police custody, along with several activists from the Extinction Rebellion climate action group who joined the blockade. Emergency activists were later released.
The Ust Luga is now positioned in Slagen, according to the Marine Traffic tracking website.
“The fact that our government continues to allow the import of Russian fossil fuels in the current situation is simply unfathomable,” Greenpeace Norway president Frod Plame said in a statement to CNN.
“I was shocked that Norway acts as a free port for Russian oil, the financial resources of which we know [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war.
The carrier, Ust Luga, is registered in Hong Kong, according to Marine Traffic.
“The transfer of oil from Russia is not in itself a violation of sanctions currently in place in the European Union or in Norway,” Anne Havardsdatter Lundy, a communications adviser to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CNN in a statement. The Norwegian authorities therefore have no legal basis to stop such an extradition. “
“In areas outside the scope of sanctions, the government is of the view that each company must independently decide what actions it will take other than those that comply with existing legislation,” she added.
An ExxonMobil spokesperson told CNN in a statement that Russian fuel shipments to Norway “fulfill contracts in place prior to the invasion.”
“We have not made any new purchases of Russian products since the invasion and there are no plans for future purchases,” she said.
“We fully comply with all sanctions, and support internationally coordinated efforts to put an end to Russia’s unprovoked attack,” the spokesman added.
– Mark Thompson contributed to this report.
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