Oil trading was interrupted for more than an hour on Wednesday in the world’s second largest energy market when 35 Greenpeace activists invaded the International Petroleum Exchange in London on the day the Kyoto global warming treaty came into effect.
The exchange, which trades oil worth up to $1 00-billion a year and sets the price for as much as 60% of the world’s crude supply, was thrown into chaos just before 2pm as traders and security guards clashed with the activists coming through the only door on to the trading floor in the basement of the building.
Carrying foghorns, alarms and whistles, the protesters tried to prevent the trading.
As three Greenpeace climbers hung a banner from the roof declaring ”Climate change kills. Stop pushing oil”, more than a dozen people were hurt when angry traders pulled a large metal bookcase on top of protesters and guards waded in to punch and kick people trapped in corridors.
Activists expressed shock at the reaction. ”They were in a frenzy. They just went wild. They were trying so hard to hit us they were falling over each other,” said Peter Mulhall, a commercial manager from Liverpool protesting at the amount of oil being traded.
Stephen Tindale, head of Greenpeace UK, who led the activists into the building, said: ”We believe we are stopping trading in oil on the global market. They just laid into us. We were non-violent and we made it clear that’s what we were there for. But there were quite a few blows raining down on our heads. There was not much discussion. We decided to retreat for everyone’s safety.”
Many of the protesters were attacked again as they were forced out of the building. One man was pulled by his hair down a corridor and kicked, another was kicked and punched in the head by a guard at the entrance. ”One person was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to hospital,” a London ambulance service spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the IPE said the trading floor reopened at 3.10pm. ”The floor was invaded by a small group of protesters,” she said. ”Open-cry trading was suspended but electronic trading carried on as normal throughout.”
One oil trader said his colleagues were angry about floor trading being delayed for more than an hour. ”We were disappointed with security for allowing this commotion just at a time when the [crude] market was pushing higher on the back of reports that a missile had been fired at Iran. I kept on trading electronically but I could see the [Greenpeace] guys coming on to the viewing gallery and then they were pushed back.”
Many of the floor traders are self-employed and stand to lose earnings from the disruption but the IPE was unwilling to comment on what volume of trade had been affected.
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said 10 people were arrested for public order offences. A further 20 were still inside the building at 5.30pm and were being dealt with by the police. All those arrested are believed to have been demonstrators.
On Wednesday night five Greenpeace activists disrupted a dinner marking International Petroleum Week, at the Grosvenor House hotel in London, held to honour Lee Raymond, chief executive of Exxon, the world’s largest oil company. In front of 1 200 oil industry executives they spilled wine on 60 tables before being ejected.
John Sauvin, campaign director of Greenpeace, said: ”It was the most crass thing imaginable to invite Raymond to London on the day that the Kyoto treaty came into force.”
The treaty binds 38 rich countries — excluding the United States and Australia, which refused to sign — to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, mainly caused by burning fossil fuels.
On Wedensday the environment secretary, Margaret Beckett, called for greater awareness of global warming. ”We need people to understand that climate change is happening here and now. It will affect all of us.” – Guardian Unlimited Â