Protesters ordered off oil rig
A court order to quit has been served on Greenpeace activists who have secured themselves to a North Sea oil rig in protest over global warming.
Six members of the environmental campaign group climbed aboard the Sante Fe 135 oil rig 30 miles east of Aberdeen from the MV Greenpeace support ship.
The protesters were inside a three-metre bell-shaped survival capsule which they hoisted up to the underside of the platform.
The rig is owned by oil and gas production group BG International which applied for the court order to remove the protesters.
A company spokeswoman said: "The court order has been served and acknowledged by Greenpeace and they have agreed to comply with the court order."
She said the matter had been dealt with by the High Court in Edinburgh and added: "We are hoping to get a resolution to the situation fairly soon. The court order did ask them to leave the rig immediately."
Greenpeace spokesman Rob Gueterbock, who is aboard the MV Greenpeace support ship, said the court order had been read out to them over the radio.
He said: "I don't know what the people in the pod want to do, but our fight isn't with the courts.
"It's outrageous that these companies go scurrying off to the courts rather than facing the consequences of their actions.
"At the end of the day they are the real criminals, they are the climate criminals. It's they that should be taken to court, not us."
