Runnymede: Oil firm secures pipeline protester injunction

Esso's pipeline delivers aviation fuel from Fawley refinery

Esso has secured an injunction to stop environmental protesters disrupting construction of an underground aviation fuel pipeline.

Activists have targeted the replacement Southampton to London pipeline.

One protester has dug himself in at Runnymede, Surrey, in a bid to disrupt the installation, a court heard.

The firm, owned by ExxonMobil, was granted the injunction against Scott Breen and "persons unknown" at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

The Southampton to London Pipeline project aims to replace 56 miles (90km) of pipe between Boorley Green in Hampshire and Esso's west London terminal storage facility in Hounslow, near Heathrow Airport.

Replacing the pipeline originally constructed in 1972, it will help to keep 100 tankers a day off the road, Esso claims, and is due for completion next year.

'Sensitive' position

Timothy Morshead QC, representing Esso, said in written submissions that it urgently sought the injunction to prevent people from "conspiring to injure" its business "by unlawful means".

The barrister said Mr Breen, "a known tunneller", had dug himself into land owned by Runnymede Borough Council, at a "sensitive" position near the M25 needed by Esso's contractors for access.

Mr Justice Eyre said in his ruling that there was "material indicating an agreement between a number of persons to disrupt the construction of the pipeline, to do so by entry onto private land and/or land which is enclosed for the purposes of the construction of the pipeline".

He concluded an injunction was "proportionate and necessary to ensure that [Esso] is permitted to carry on its lawful activities".

He set a date of 7 September when the injunction will be reconsidered by the court.

Mr Breen had 72 hours to remove himself from the service of the order to him, the judge said.

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